Medicare and Medicaid at 50
Medicare and Medicaid at 50

Author: Alan B. Cohen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0190231564

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For fifty years, Medicare and Medicaid have stood at the center of a contentious debate surrounding American government, citizenship, and health care entitlement. In Medicare and Medicaid at 50, leading scholars in politics, government, economics, health policy, and history offer a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of these programs and their impact on society -- from their origins in the Great Society era to the current battles over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). These highly accessible essays examine Medicare and Medicaid from their origins as programs for the elderly and poor to their later role as a safety net for the middle class. Along the way, they have served as touchstones for heated debates about economics, social welfare, and the role of government. Medicare and Medicaid at 50 addresses key questions for understanding the past and future of health policy in America, including: · What were the origins for these initiatives, and how were they transformed over time? · What marks have Medicare and Medicaid left on society? · In what ways have these programs produced innovation, even in eras of retrenchment? · How did Medicaid, once regarded as a poor person's program, expand its benefits and coverage over the decades to become the platform for the ACA's future expansion? The volume's contributors go on to examine the powerful role of courts in these transformations, along with the shifting roles of Congress, public opinion, and state governors in the programs' ongoing evolution. From Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama on the left, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush on the right, American political leaders have tied their political fortunes to the fate of America's entitlement programs; Medicare and Medicaid at 50 helps explain why, and how those ongoing debates are likely to shape the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Medicaid at 50
Medicaid at 50

Author: Subcommittee on Health of the Committee

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-06-11

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781547254316

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In July of 2015, Medicaid turned 50 years old. It was created as a joint Federal/State program to provide healthcare coverage to certain categories of low-income Americans. Today Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the world. More than 70 million Americans are covered by Medicaid, which is more than are covered by Medicare. Medicaid is a critical lifeline for some of our Nation's most vulnerable patients. Medicaid provides health care for children, pregnant mothers, the elderly, the blind, and the disabled. The current trajectory of Medicaid spending is problematic. Since 2003 Medicaid has been designated a high risk program by the GAO because of its size, growth, diversity programs, concerns about gaps, and fiscal oversight. In the next decade, program outlays are set to double. That means that, in a decade, Medicaid is going to cost Federal taxpayers what Medicare costs today. And that is not even counting the fact that the Medicaid program is already the fastest growing spending item in most State budgets. Without Congressional intervention, Medicaid will continue to consume a larger and larger portion of Federal and State spending. According to CBO data, by 2030, the entire Federal budget will be consumed with spending on mandatory entitlements and service on the debt. This spending trajectory threatens the quality and access of care for the millions of vulnerable patients who depend on Medicaid.

Care Without Coverage
Care Without Coverage

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2002-06-20

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0309083435

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Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

The Politics of Medicaid
The Politics of Medicaid

Author: Laura Katz Olson

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2010-05-31

Total Pages: 609

ISBN-13: 0231521596

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In 1965, the United States government enacted legislation to provide low-income individuals with quality health care and related services. Initially viewed as the friendless stepchild of Medicare, Medicaid has grown exponentially since its inception, becoming a formidable force of its own. Funded jointly by the national government and each of the fifty states, the program is now the fourth most expensive item in the federal budget and the second largest category of spending for almost every state. Now, under the new, historic health care reform legislation, Medicaid is scheduled to include sixteen million more people. Laura Katz Olson, an expert on health, aging, and long-term care policy, unravels the multifaceted and perplexing puzzle of Medicaid with respect to those who invest in and benefit from the program. Assessing the social, political, and economic dynamics that have shaped Medicaid for almost half a century, she helps readers of all backgrounds understand the entrenched and powerful interests woven into the system that have been instrumental in swelling costs and holding elected officials hostage. Addressing such fundamental questions as whether patients receive good care and whether Medicaid meets the needs of the low-income population it is supposed to serve, Olson evaluates the extent to which the program is an appropriate foundation for health care reform.

Medicaid at 50
Medicaid at 50

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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Traces Medicaid's evolution, discussing major legislative changes and other inflection points in the program's history, both for the record and for perspective on Medicaid's different roles in our health care system and how they developed. In doing so, it also shows how Medicaid threads through our health care system today and takes the measure of its impact. Begins by discussing Medicaid coverage for the main populations served by the program. Then discusses delivery systems and innovation in Medicaid and Medicaid spending and financing. Concludes by looking forward to consider the main issues that will concern the Medicaid program in the decades ahead and to assess how Medicaid is poised to meet the future needs of our nation.

Health Insurance is a Family Matter
Health Insurance is a Family Matter

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2002-09-18

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0309169054

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Health Insurance is a Family Matter is the third of a series of six reports on the problems of uninsurance in the United Sates and addresses the impact on the family of not having health insurance. The book demonstrates that having one or more uninsured members in a family can have adverse consequences for everyone in the household and that the financial, physical, and emotional well-being of all members of a family may be adversely affected if any family member lacks coverage. It concludes with the finding that uninsured children have worse access to and use fewer health care services than children with insurance, including important preventive services that can have beneficial long-term effects.

Medicaid at 50
Medicaid at 50

Author: David Orentlicher

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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For the first fifty years of its existence, Medicaid suffered from a serious defect. While it was adopted to meet the health care needs of the poor, it only met the needs of the so-called “deserving” poor -- children, pregnant women, single caretakers of children, and disabled persons -- people who could not fairly be held accountable for their inability to afford health care insurance. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) seemingly has abandoned Medicaid's conception of the deserving poor with its expansion of the Medicaid program to all persons up to 138% of the federal poverty level. One no longer needs to be a child, disabled, pregnant, or a caretaker of a child to be eligible for Medicaid; it is sufficient simply to be poor. In this essay, I consider the significance of this major modification of the Medicaid program. Does the ACA signal a more generous view of the deserving poor, or even an abandonment of the distinction between the poor and the “deserving” poor? Or does the ACA tell us more about the nature of health care than about societal views of the poor? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about the durability of the Medicaid expansion? Can we expect Congress to maintain the ACA's revision of Medicaid for the next fifty years? Most likely, the Medicaid expansion reflects concerns about the high costs of health care rather than an evolution in societal thinking about the “deserving” poor. As a result, the expansion may not provide a durable source of health care coverage for the expansion population.

The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act

Author: Tamara Thompson

Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC

Published: 2014-12-02

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0737776196

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.

Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination
Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-04-02

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 030946921X

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The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.