Medicare and Medicaid
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Medicare is an insurance program provided by the United States federal government primarily for people over 65, regardless of their level of income. The insurance program also includes young disabled persons and patients under dialysis. Medicaid is a federal and state government medical assistance program designed to serve low-income earners within the United States. Tiny co-payments are sometimes required to help cater for the care or treatment costs of the recipient (Berkowitz et al., 2018). Inpatient health service, prescription drug costs and mental health care are major components of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Inpatient health care involves all activities undertaken by medical specialists on a patient in the proper diagnosis and treatment of an individual. Inpatient care is a long-term strategy as the patient, in most cases, is expected to visit the hospital regularly for routine clinical checks and follow-ups (Berkowitz et al., 2018). The major gaps within this component are the lack of proper treatment cost coverage by the healthcare plans. Medicare and Medicaid assist an individual up to a certain cost level and expect them to foot the remaining part of the bill. Medicare caters to elderly patients, individuals with a disability and dialysis patients, leaving out a large part of the population not covered. Medicaid, as an alternative, is a program for low-income earners. According to Berkowitz et al. (2018) exposes a gap in the program as there is a need for increased coverage of healthcare service costs for low-income earners as they are often at a higher risk of contracting infections than high-income earners.
Prescription drugs in the US are costly, and the two federal/state healthcare programs do not fully cater for this. This presents a harmful gap to the patients in that they may face incidences where they do not complete the required dosage. Another gap lies in the fact that government facilities do not stock all drugs, making it easier for private facilities to exploit patients. Dental care is only slightly funded; hence, individuals need to seek secondary providers to get covered. This exposes them to higher costs of living and of receiving medical care. There is understaffing of dentists in government hospitals as a gap, thus giving most individuals the option to visit private practitioners.
Social security in the United States has been helpful to the elderly retired people. It is a life insurance policy that makes life in old age easier due to access to financial resources. The elderly can achieve freedom and health care insurance plans; hence, a better quality of life (Marmor and Mashaw, 2017). The program should continue but modified to ensure that it is not affected by a few factors that have developed over time. Low bond yield rates in recent times mean that pension funds have not made high amounts of money that ensure making payments is not affected. They are also exposed to people living longer than previous decades, thus, drawing social security checks for a longer period. Better investment and pay-out plans should be evaluated and implemented.
References
Berkowitz, S. A., Terranova, J., Hill, C., Ajayi, T., Linsky, T., Tishler, L. W., & DeWalt, D. A. (2018). Meal delivery programs reduce the use of costly health care in dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Health Affairs, 37(4), 535-542.
Marmor, T. R., & Mashaw, J. L. (Eds.). (2017). Social security: beyond the Rhetoric of crisis. Princeton University Press.