Aging Impact

I wrote this in 2008. Seems like this still applies. What is your opinion?

The aging population will exacerbate the fiscal pressures on health care costs due to the longevity and increase of those in need of acute care. According to Orszag (2007), demographic changes will increase Social Security in 30 years from 4% to 6% before stabilizing. This increase will create outsized budget deficits that would raise the government debt to unprecedented levels. Although the effects of retirement of boomers and the social Security imbalance needs addressed, there is a greater need to examining health care costs that exert the dominant influence on the budget.
Hochhauser (2005) examines the Medicare benefits (currently collected by seniors for at least 10 to 15 years) changing with the increase in a healthier aging population living to approximately 100 years. Most Medicare payments do not cover all health care costs and seniors to pay for non-coverage services rely upon supplemental insurance. Hochhauser asks the questions, if retirement extends to 70 would Medicare not pay until people reached 100, moreover, what about Social Security? Efforts are currently being made to move the working age to 70 before collecting Social Security benefits. This then affects the HMO’s and managed care plans and eventually LTC.
Services will be in great demand; joint replacements, organ transplants, knee/hip replacement are just a few that will increase and place this great demand on the health care organizations. The demand on HMO’s and Medicare will increase and according to Hochhauser, there will be some kind of health care rationing, or triage, or frequency limit, or co-payment system that will be needed to help health plans finically survive. He poses on more question. What type of care can be provided for the aged with dementia and an extended lifespan? Who is going to pay for this care?(Hochhauser, 2005).
Not only do families, nursing facilities (long-term care providers) have these questions, but also the public is now examining the role of HMOs and MCOs as well as PPOs in long-term care. The impact of consumerisms on managed health care presents its own issues toward the transformation of managed health care plans and long-term care. Consumers are looking into new ways to save costs and pick a plan that offers different levels of health care services. These programs need to follow them into later life and long-term care. In response, health care plans are in a transformation process and the consumer is left with the question what is the best system for the long run?
Caregivers and health care professionals have a large impact on the health of the resident and the outcome of quality of care. Medicare and Medicaid are the most drawn on insurance providers for Long Term Care Facilities. These programs have strict limited requirements to be met by the facility to provide for the cost of care to the resident. HMOs and PPOs are not commonplace in Long Term Care, however, this may change with the pressures place on these plans from the new older generation,

Reference:
Orszag, Peter R. (2007). The Biggest Budget Buster. Wall Street Journal.(Eastern ed.) New York, N.Y. p A 19
Hochhauser, Mark.(2005). Living to 120: What Will it Mean toManaged Care?Managed Care Quarterly 13(1) 13–15