Debates of healthcare cost (source:examiner.com)USA -There have been heated debates across the United States about how to best handle the serious problem of spiraling healthcare costs for the elderly. Springer has published an article on September 4 addressing this issue: "Healthcare costs hit the elderly hard, diminish financial well being." The research dealing with this article by Amy Kelley at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and her colleagues, has been published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

A combination of spiraling healthcare costs and increased longevity has placed the protection of the savings of the elderly, which is one of the primary goals of Medicare, under threat. Nearly universal health care coverage to the population over 65 is provided by Medicare. However, it does not cover all medical expenses. There are often co-payments and deductibles. Also, home healthcare services and non-rehabilitative nursing home care are not covered.
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The researchers investigated total out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures in the last five years of life, and looked at these costs as a percentage of total household assets. In their study it was found that greater than three quarters of households spent at least $10,000, with the spending for all participants averaging $38,688 in the last five years of life. It was even more shocking to find that a quarter of participants made an average contribution of $101,791, and the same number spent more than their total household assets on healthcare.

Kelley and her colleagues have noted that the amount of money spent on healthcare varied widely with the type of illness suffered, with dementia costing the most money. It was found that out-of-pocket spending for individuals or their spouses dying with dementia was more than twice the average for dying from gastrointestinal disease or cancer. Most of these costs are related to nursing home expenses which was found to account for 56 percent of average spending in those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

As of this time all attempts to promote legislation to help with long-term care requirements have been found to be too expensive. The authors of this study have speculated that until someone comes up with a financially viable scheme, the financial outlook for the elderly in coming decades is not promising. They have concluded that, "as more baby boomers retire, a new generation of widows or widowers could face a sharply diminished financial future as they confront their recently-depleted nest egg following the illness and death of a spouse". This is very discouraging and makes it clear the status quo in dealing with Medicare is not acceptable, unless we want to have a nation with more and more of our elderly citizens literally starving to death in the streets.

source: http://www.examiner.com