Aged Care Policies in the United States: Medicare Analysis

This report examines aged care policies in the United States, with a particular emphasis on Medicare. The author highlights the increasing aged population and the strain on healthcare resources. The report analyzes Medicare's eligibility criteria, including age and work history requirements, and identifies potential areas for amendment. The author suggests lowering the age threshold for eligibility and reducing the minimum Medicare tax payment period. Furthermore, the report critiques the current disease-specific criteria for eligibility, advocating for broader coverage to include individuals with chronic conditions beyond kidney-related illnesses. The author references various studies and government resources to support the analysis and recommendations for policy reform.

Running Head: AGED CARE POLICIES
AGED CARE POLICIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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The senior citizens are always more dependent on others and vulnerable to threat, which
makes them consume most of the policies of a country designed for their welfare. It is the same
in United States of America because the aged population is increasing rapidly. It is predicted that
71 million Americans, which is around 20% of the US population will be 65 and older by 2030
(Mehta et al. 2016). They are vulnerable to chronic illness, complex health problems, mental
disabilities, and this is the reason why they exhaust most of the medical facilities and policies.
The government keeps trying to stay in touch with the issues of the elderly because they
need efficient medical care with financial assistance and support. The government is trying to
make policies and bring reforms in the system such as implementing affordable care act,
medicare payment reform, reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, including more financial
incentives for people who need financial care, restructuring healthcare delivery systems, and
changing the regulations for nursing homes and long-term care facilities (Segelman et al. 2014).
One of the policies that needs to be amended for the welfare of older community is
medicare. Medicare is eligible for people of age 65 or above that includes younger people who
have disabilities and end stage renal disease. It has two parts, part A is the hospital insurance and
part B is medicare insurance. Part A with premium free benefits is eligible for people above the
age of 65 and if they or their spouse has worked and have been paying the medicare taxes for
minimum 10 years. People can receive Part A without paying premiums if they have been
receiving benefits from railroad retirement board or social security, and when one of them or
their spouse had a medicare covered government employment. People who did not pay for the
medicare taxes can purchase the premium if they are above the age of 65 and are a permanent
resident of US but if they are below the age of 65 they can purchase it only if they have been

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entitled to railroad retirement board or social security, and if they are suffering from kidney
dialysis or kidney transplant (HHS.gov 2020).
Amendment is needed in this policy because it has certain terms and conditions that does
not make many people valid for the privileges. People above the age of 60 should be the
inclusion criteria because in many cases health complications in old age begins from the age of
60. It is also necessary to decrease the minimum time span of 10 years for paying medicare taxes
to 5 years because it will increase the people valid for this policy. Another criteria is that it is
eligible for people below 65 years but they should be kidney patients with end stage renal disease
or kidney transplant patients. This is not a valid criteria because there are several chronic
diseases that need expensive medical treatment such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus
and mental disorders (Graham et al. 2015). Limiting it to a certain diseases does not make it fair
for other elderly citizens who suffer from a different disease.

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References
Graham, D.J., Reichman, M.E., Wernecke, M., Zhang, R., Southworth, M.R., Levenson, M.,
Sheu, T.C., Mott, K., Goulding, M.R., Houstoun, M. and MaCurdy, T.E., 2015. Cardiovascular,
bleeding, and mortality risks in elderly Medicare patients treated with dabigatran or warfarin for
nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Circulation, 131(2), pp.157-164.
HHS.gov, 2020. Who Is Eligible For Medicare?. [online] HHS.gov. Available at:
<https://www.hhs.gov/answers/medicare-and-medicaid/who-is-elibible-for-medicare/
index.html> [Accessed 31 March 2020].
Mehta, N.K., Elo, I.T., Engelman, M., Lauderdale, D.S. and Kestenbaum, B.M., 2016. Life
expectancy among US-born and foreign-born older adults in the United States: Estimates from
linked social security and medicare data. Demography, 53(4), pp.1109-1134.
Segelman, M., Szydlowski, J., Kinosian, B., McNabney, M., Raziano, D.B., Eng, C., Van
Reenen, C. and Temkin–Greener, H., 2014. Hospitalizations in the program of all‐inclusive care
for the elderly. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(2), pp.320-324.