Healthcare Allocation: Limiting Care for Elderly Patients?

This discussion board post addresses the question of whether healthcare for elder patients should be limited, drawing on data from the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) and articles about federal spending and rural healthcare challenges. The post argues in favor of limiting healthcare for elders, citing the increasing government expenditure on Medicare and its negative impact on rural hospitals, which are struggling financially. It also references data showing decreased federal spending on children's healthcare. The author suggests that by implementing limitations, the government could reallocate funds to support rural healthcare and children's health initiatives, potentially preventing diseases and improving overall population health. The post references multiple sources to support its claims, including CMS.gov and USA Today articles. It advocates for a balanced approach to healthcare funding to address the needs of all populations.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTHCARE 0
ELDER PATIENTS

HEALTHCARE 1
"Should we limit the amount of health care for elder patients? Why or Why not?"
The amount of healthcare for elder patients should be limited it is because the estimation
describes that since 1965 the spending is increased with the rate of 14.5% and the expenditure
which is made by the government is also increased and invest more on Medicare programs.
Therefore, with the increase in time the invest of the government raises which have negative
influence on various areas which includes that up to 88% of the rural hospital in the state are
suffering and operating “in the red” (Thornton, 2019). It is because they does not have sufficient
amount to invest currently and cover the cost and expenditure of offering special and efficient
care to the patients. Therefore, by limiting the amount the government can provide and invest
more funds in rural healthcare so that efficient delivery services are provided to the patients.
The argument of limiting the amount for providing healthcare to the elder patient is further also
supported with the other authors view point that since the year 2010 the federal government also
spends less on providing healthcare to the children. This results in increasing the dangerous
diseases among the children (Collins, 2018). The budget of the federal government in investing
healthcare services to the elder were higher in the year 1960 , but significantly decreases and
leads in affecting the health of the children in negative manner. Therefore, by developing certain
limitation and boundaries the government can invest more on the children healthcare and can
provide better services to the elder, this leads in managing the health of all the populations and
can also support in preventing various number of population from the dangerous diseases (Nardi
et al., n.d.). The government can also organize the camp and program for routine checkup of the
children.
The National Health Expenditure Data (NHE) raise the spending in the Medicare which is
estimated that in the year 2018 it was increasing up to 6.4% and expenditure of the hospital is
also grew by 4.5% which has negative positive effects (CMS.gov, 2018). However, the spending
can be invested in equal manner by giving funds and other necessary resources to the rural
hospital so that the rate of increasing dangerous diseases in the rural areas will be decreased.
Further, the investment will be made on the primary healthcare services so that so that other
benefits will also provide to the patients.

HEALTHCARE 2
References
CMS.gov, 2018. NHE Fact Sheet. [Online] Available at: https://www.cms.gov/Research-
Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NHE-
Fact-Sheet.
Collins, M., 2018. Report: The federal government is spending less on children and more on the
elderly. [Online] Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/07/report-
federal-government-spends-more-elderly-than-kids/677011002/.
Nardi, M.D., French, E., Jones, J.B. & McCauley, J., n.d. Medical Spending of the US Elderly.
[Online] Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-5890.2016.12106
[Accessed 2016].
Thornton, W., 2019. Hospital closing highlights problems of rural healthcare. [Online]
Available at: https://www.al.com/business/2019/02/hospital-closing-highlights-problems-of-
rural-healthcare.html.