The distribution of beneficiary age ranges compared to money spent by age range is disproportionally skewed left. The younger 44% of beneficiaries use only 37% of the $375 billion that goes towards Medicare annually. People over 80 account for 24% of all Medicare beneficiaries and also consume 33% of Medicare’s budget. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the population of people over 80 will triple, from 13 million to 39 million. This is a huge problem for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and will only get worse in the future.
The surge in elderly population in the next few decades can be attributed to the post World War II baby boom. After the war, congress passed the G.I. Bill, to help veterans rejoin civilian society. The bill lowered interest rates for veterans, to encourage home ownership and pursuit of higher education. With low interest rates and plenty of jobs, lots of veterans married and started having children.
In addition to a growing elderly population, the average life expectancy is also rising. In 1965, when original Medicare was first enacted, the average life expectancy was 70.22. In 2015, the average …show more content…
Raising the Medicare eligibility age could be beneficial for a couple of reasons: it would encourage people to keep working instead of retiring, and it would lower the total spending of Medicare. Raising the eligibility age would make the United States as a whole more productive by keeping people who have valuable knowledge and experience in the workforce. The change would also shrink the beneficiary pool thus reducing the overall cost of Medicare. One possible way to implement these alterations would be to tie the Medicare eligibility age to the average life expectancy.
Conversely, raising the Medicare eligibility age could be detrimental by universally raising healthcare costs for
The surge in elderly population in the next few decades can be attributed to the post World War II baby boom. After the war, congress passed the G.I. Bill, to help veterans rejoin civilian society. The bill lowered interest rates for veterans, to encourage home ownership and pursuit of higher education. With low interest rates and plenty of jobs, lots of veterans married and started having children.
In addition to a growing elderly population, the average life expectancy is also rising. In 1965, when original Medicare was first enacted, the average life expectancy was 70.22. In 2015, the average …show more content…
Raising the Medicare eligibility age could be beneficial for a couple of reasons: it would encourage people to keep working instead of retiring, and it would lower the total spending of Medicare. Raising the eligibility age would make the United States as a whole more productive by keeping people who have valuable knowledge and experience in the workforce. The change would also shrink the beneficiary pool thus reducing the overall cost of Medicare. One possible way to implement these alterations would be to tie the Medicare eligibility age to the average life expectancy.
Conversely, raising the Medicare eligibility age could be detrimental by universally raising healthcare costs for