The old aphorism “the future isn”™t what it used to be” has been attributed to various figures, ranging from literary giants Robert Graves and Paul Valéry to malaprop-prone baseball legend Yogi Berra. However, the expression might be attributed today to America”™s seniors, who are increasingly agitated over the near-future state of Medicare and their health care costs.
Jeff Smedsrud, co-founder of HealthCare.com, the parent company of MedicareGuide.com.
According to a survey from MedicareGuide.com that polled 1,126 adults ages 65 and older, 58% of respondents voiced concerns about their ability to afford future health care costs and 50% worried they could face heavy debt or bankruptcy if there was a severe health situation in their household.
And it seems that the nation”™s seniors don”™t have to wait for a major medical expense to occur. When asked to rank their health care expenses from highest to lowest, respondents most often cited health insurance (33%), dentist bills (19%) and prescription drugs (16%) as their highest expenses. Other health care expenses cited by respondents were inpatient hospital bills (9%), long-term care (5%), outpatient hospital bills (4%) and doctor bills (4%).
Nearly one-third of respondents reported a surprise medical bill in the last two years. Among those who received surprise medical bills, nearly three out of five said the total amount billed to them was greater than $500.
Dealing with Medicare has not been therapeutic for many of the seniors in the survey. One-quarter of the Medicare beneficiaries admitted they had trouble settling a health care-related bill since October 2019. Among those who faced such difficulties in the past year, the greatest difficulties involved prescription drugs (59%), health insurance out-of-pocket costs (36%), health insurance monthly premiums (28%), hospital/surgical bills (18%), doctor visits (12%), scans or screenings (11%), long-term treatments (5%) and other expenses (9%).
When asked how they saved on prescription drug costs over the past year 44% of respondents chose the generic version of a brand-name drug while 37% bought a larger supply to make less frequent copays. One in seven shopped around at pharmacies or with apps to save money, 11% took less than the prescribed dosage, 10% asked for a larger dosage and used a pill-splitter to cut pills, 8% skipped a medically necessary prescription and 5% bought their medications from overseas sources.
Jeff Smedsrud, co-founder of HealthCare.com, the parent company of MedicareGuide.com, acknowledged that the Medicare system is going through more than a few challenges today.
“It”™s under a fair amount of stress ”” as is much of our health care system ”” with 10,000 people plus a day turning 65,” he said. “At some point, there”™s going to be a need for someone to fix Medicare to make sure there”™s enough funds available over the next 20 to 30 years. That”™s probably the reason that many people over age 65 are very concerned about health care costs, are concerned about the long-term stability of Medicare and are concerned that there will incur expenses that they can”™t afford to pay.”
Smedsrud stated the tough question is where the future funding from Medicare is coming from, noting this has not been a major focus in the presidential campaign after the Democratic candidates advocating a Medicare-for-all concept dropped out. The fate of Medicare”™s funding sources will become much clearer after the election is over, he said.
“It really depends on who”™s in control of the U.S. Senate,” he said. “Not to simplify the situation, but if Republicans continue to control the U.S. Senate, there”™ll be a lot of talk about Medicare for all, but they”™re not going to budge and it won”™t become law. Biden is not campaigning on Medicare-for-all but he is campaigning on expanding Medicare, giving those under 65 additional choices to enroll earlier in Medicare.
“But,” he continued, “if you have the House controlled by the Democrats, which is almost certain, and the Senate is controlled by the Democrats ”” which is anybody”™s guess ”” and a Democratic presidency, Medicare-for-all might become very, very hard to hard to stop even if the president is not enthusiastic about it because the liberal wing of the Democratic Party totally embraces it. And they would clearly have controlled all three branches.”
And if the MedicareGuide.com poll is any indication, that could be the future.
When the respondents were asked which political party would better protect Medicare for the future, 51% answered the Democratic Party, 40% said the Republican Party and 2% gave their support to independents.
