{"id":3970,"date":"2019-07-24T12:28:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T12:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/803.557.mywebsitetransfer.com\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2019-07-26T19:39:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T19:39:23","slug":"medicares-2026-crisis-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/?p=3970","title":{"rendered":"Medicare\u2019s 2026 Crisis (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We ended our previous\nblog discussing the problem the Medicare Trust Fund will be facing by 2026.  This time, we reflect on a few more problems,\nmissed opportunities, and maybe what steps we need to take to change what looks\nto be inevitable.   In Medicare\u2019s 2026 Crisis (Part 1), <\/em>we\nnoted that we have just witnessed a historic event.  For the first time in history, there are more\npeople aged 65 and older than those aged 5 years and under, worldwide.  This fact has been so slow in impacting our\ndaily lives that most of us don\u2019t realize or can even imagine the consequences.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our theory is\nthat we are at the crossroads of two generations that is unprecedented in\nmodern history.  First, the generation of\nwhat we call Baby Boomers that started with the world-wide post World War II\npopulation growth, in particular in the United States, with nearly similar\nresults in most of the developed world. \nToday, resulting in the second generation \u2013 the Echo Boomers, better\nknown as Millennials.  These two\ngenerations, the latter now greater than the 77 million Baby Boomers, could not\nbe more different \u2013 from education to household formation to marriage and child\nbirth rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That difference\nis going to be more manifested in the next two decades.  The first Baby Boomer turned 65 years old in\n2012, with the leading edge of that generation headlined by former President\nClinton (born August 19, 1946) and President Trump (born June 14, 1946) who are\nnow 73 years old, and the trailing edge is now reaching age 55 years old.  The peak birth year for that generation (and\nthe highest number of births in U.S. history) was 1959 when there were\n4,295,000 births.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we also\nmust also consider there were immigrants that came to the U.S. from other\ncountries (such as myself) who were also born that year.  Staying with only the native-born population,\nmeans that in five years (2024), 11,767 people a day in the U.S. will be\nturning 65.  This is why we believe that\nthe true crisis in healthcare cost is just beginning for both Medicare and the\nnation at large.  The problem is also clearly\nimpacting every age group \u2013 both those working and those retired under the protection\nof Medicaid.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graph below\nshows the impact in the middle class as healthcare cost continue to increase.  One factor in particular, the average\ndeductible over the last decade has increased by over 300% and 25% of Americans\nhave a $2,500 annual healthcare deductible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What are\nthe actions we can take today to reduce the impact of this seemingly\nunpredictable financial crisis? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. We must lead with much better use\nof technology; we have done a horrible job thus far.  We must connect providers and consumers, and use\nEHR\u2019s, IoT, telemedicine and technology alike much better than we have in the\npast.<\/li>
  2. We must change the way providers\nare being paid in general to reward them for more health maintenance \u2013 not just\nprocedures. <\/li>
  3. We must increase what primary\ncare providers get paid. <\/li>
  4. We must engage the consumers in\ntheir own healthcare and reward them for acting to improve their health and\ncontrol healthcare cost at every level by sharing the net savings.<\/li>
  5. We must bring more transparent\ncompletion to healthcare.  The State of\nFlorida now requires hospitals to post their prices online; a complicated\nissue, as there is no uniformity in pricing; however, it\u2019s a great first step. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The longer we delay acting, the bigger the problem will be.  As we have mentioned before, nationalized care or single payer in our opinion will actually make the problem worse, faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -Noel J. Guillama, President<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/www.ssa.gov\/oact\/TRSUM\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/medicare-b-costs-for-retirees-projected-to-rise-11555978694<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/trump-administration-launches-program-to-rein-in-medicare-costs-11555972589<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/www.modernhealthcare.com\/payment\/cms-launch-new-direct-contracting-pay-models-2020<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We ended our previous blog discussing the problem the Medicare Trust Fund will be facing by 2026.  This time, we reflect on a few more problems, missed opportunities, and maybe what steps we need to take to change what looks to be inevitable.   In Medicare\u2019s 2026 Crisis (Part 1), we noted that we have just witnessed a historic event.  For the first time in history, there are more people aged 65 and older than those aged 5 years and under, worldwide.  This fact has been so slow in impacting our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AdobeStock_221778379.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3988,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions\/3988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}