One of the biggest topics of conversation in America today is the subject of health care reform. What was once touted as a simple overhaul intended to provide all Americans with the health care coverage that they need has become a complicated and convoluted hodge-podge of political ambitions and power plays, leaving many Americans to wonder if their best interests are even being considered as sweeping new legislation is bandied around amongst politicians on both sides of the aisle. Of all of the American demographic groups, seniors are arguably the most concerned about proposed changes to the nation’s healthcare system. This is because the vast majority of American seniors rely on Medicare to offset their healthcare costs, and any major healthcare reform is likely to have a significant impact on Medicare benefits across the board.
While questions regarding health care reform’s potential impact on the aging senior population have received mixed and often contradictory answers, most agree that seniors will not lose any existing coverage should a sweeping healthcare reform bill pass and be signed into law. However, while benefits should not decrease and may even increase, the bureaucracy surrounding these benefits will likely change dramatically and may cause confusion and potentially loss of benefits due to lack of understanding of changes.
One of the most important things to keep in mind at this point in time is that nothing regarding any potential healthcare reform has been finalized, and what is true today may not necessarily be true tomorrow. However, certain things have been implicitly ensured by the president himself. First of all, regarding the idea that people will be denied crucial healthcare procedures and allowed to simply die based upon age. That is not true, at least not more so than it is already. For example, such procedures as organ transplants are already meted out to only those candidates who meet certain criteria, including optimum age and lifestyle designations.
One thing that is certain when it comes to the affect any changes made to the healthcare system may have on seniors is that they will continued to be covered, and Medicare is slated to remain intact. This is something that could not even have been said with any real assurance even a year ago, as many people estimated that the program would be bankrupt within years.
And while the Medicare budget is expected to be cut to help fund more comprehensive healthcare (the money has to come from somewhere) many people believe that Medicare costs are going to be reduced in general based upon the fact that American’s will not have to wait until they are old enough to be covered by Medicare to see a doctor regularly. The hope is that preventative care will become the norm, negating the need for more expensive treatments on the large scale. If this happens (and it is reasonable to expect that it will, to some degree at least, if all American’s have affordable access to medical care), then it is fathomable that Medicare will be sustainable on a smaller annual budget.
