Implementation and Modification IP 4 - Essay Example

This report gives an account of the effectiveness of the Medicare program and provides a futuristic approach towards the program and systems of implementing the changes (Moon, 2006). The topic "Strengthening and Improving Medicare" elicited various views from both public and private entities and individuals. The congressional subcommittee of health held a forum for persons of concern to give their witness accounts on the topic. Some of the prime witnesses who stood before the subcommittee include among others, Robert Berenson, the senior consultant officer at Academy Health, Foster, Richard, Buddy Robert, a beneficiary of the Medicare + Choice health plan and Grealy, Mary, the President of Healthcare Leadership Council.

All these witnesses gave individual accounts of the success of the current Medicare system and gave recommendations on ways of improving it. According to Berenson, the well-established and effective Medicare program is being replaced by the Medicare + Choice program, which shifts focus from the government provided healthcare to private health insurance. There is no evidence to prove that shifting to such a system will reduce the program’s expenditure or improve on its financial position. The only entities to benefit from the new program will be private health insurance institutions, which will only serve to segment adversely the insurance pool and increase costs of maintaining the traditional program.

Through her statement, Grealy, advocates for the introduction of a prescription drug benefit to boost the financial as well as healthcare quality of the Medicare program. According to the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), the 50 percent increase from $6,200 to $9,500 in cost of Medicare for one beneficiary by the year 2013 will have no significant improvement in the program’s quality of an outpatient prescription drug coverage is not included in the program. The HLC advocates for the establishment of a Medicare delivery module that incorporates the aspects of competition, flexibility and invests in beneficiaries who have consumer choice power.

Through such a measure, Medicare would be able to provide similar benefits to employer-sponsored programs, which offer benefits such as outpatient prescription drugs, the ability to choose a health program that best suits individual needs and reduce out-of-pocket costs and. The Medicare + Choice plan reduces the number of services offered to Medicare beneficiaries because it receives lower payments than the previous fee-for-service Medicare program. Through this, the Medicare + Choice plan has increased beneficiary cost sharing, which squashes the chance of fair competition in healthcare provision (CEC, 2003).

Robert Buddy, a beneficiary of the Medicare + Choice health program gave his account of the benefits of the Medicare Program and the Medicare + Choice plan, which he joined after the privatization of the Medicare program. According to Robert, the Medicare program did not offer comprehensive benefits thus had to spend at least $2,000 on a Medicare Supplement policy to gain more healthcare benefits. Emphasis of the Medicare + Choice plan is early detection and treatment, which affords better healthcare to its beneficiaries.

Robert recounted the case of his father, who was on the Medicare prog