Medicare, as we currently know it, is about to undergo some big changes. This will happen no matter who ends up becoming the next President of the United States. People who are currently using Medicare, or who expect to be eligible for it soon, will want to keep an eye on these changes.
The baby boomers are about to see some changes to the Medicare program. It is very likely that things will change in ways that this generation was not anticipating. It doesn’t seem to really matter who ends up being elected as the next President of the United States, or from which political party that person is connected with. Changes are coming.
According to the American Association for Retired Person’s (AARP), there were 65 new Medicare beneficiaries every eight seconds in 2011. More than 1.5 million baby boomers are signing up for Medicare every year.
This increase is due to the fact that the baby boomers, (those who were born between 1946 and 1964), are starting to reach retirement age. The first baby boomers turned 65 in 2011. This is just the beginning, because more than seventy-five million children were born during the baby boomer generation.
At the same time, the Medicare trust fund for inpatient care is running out of money. It is expected to completely run out in 2024. When that happens, Medicare will only be able to collect enough money from payroll taxes to cover around 90% of the Medicare benefits. It has also been estimated that somewhere between 20% and 30% of what Medicare spends every year is wasted. It is spent on treatments and procedures that are not very beneficial to patients.
Based on those numbers, there have to be changes to Medicare. Right now, about 75% of Medicare recipients are using the “traditional” government run form of Medicare. Around 25% are using Medicare Advantage, which comes from private health insurers.
There is a debate about whether or not Medicare should be entirely privatized. In general, Republicans want to see it privatized, and Democrats do not. Other changes could include raising the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. Another possibility is that people will see an increase in the cost of their Medicare premiums, (which could come in the form of higher co-payments, or cutting back on payments to pharmaceutical manufacturers).
In other words, even though the majority of Americans don’t want to see changes made to Medicare, there will be changes coming. Baby boomers are going to be the first generation to experience whatever changes occur. This means that there are thousands of Americans who grew up with certain expectations about Medicare that simply aren’t going to come true.
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