Medicare, the Elderly and Reimbursement Issues:

Medicare was designed to provide healthcare to a specific population at a time when many of the elderly seemed unable to afford healthcare.

Based on your understanding of the topic, answer the following:

• Does the above statement remain true today, especially with many people staying in the workplace long after what was previously considered the retirement age? Why or why not?
• Should Medicare be expanded to include not just older Americans and those with certain disabilities, but other people as well? Discuss.

Some contend the creation of Medicare was part of a long struggle toward nationalized healthcare insurance. Medicare is now such a large program and it has an immense impact on the rest of the industry.

• Has the implementation of Medicare actually forwarded the cause for national health insurance or impeded its progress? Discuss.
• Explain the political and administrative issues possibly playing a part in this respect?

Reimbursement of Medicare has had a dramatic effect on both the acute and long-term care of the healthcare industries.

• How has the change to the PPS for hospitals in the early 1980s and the change to PPS in the late 1990s had such a dramatic effect on the healthcare industry?
• Discuss issues of Medicare that are fraud and abuse. How has the government's effort to curb abuse shaped the Medicare policies and regulations?