Impact Of Health Care Legislation Hr 3962 On The Outsourcing Industry

President Barack Obama had a hard won victory on Saturday night (the 7-8th day of November 2009) when the landmark health care reform legislation (HR 3962) was passed with 220-215 votes. Now if everything goes the Obama way, then by the end of the year ’09 “Affordable Health Care for America Act” would apply as a law impacting almost fifty million US lives. But what does this Act actually imply? How does it stand to impact an average US life? How does the Act affect the outsourcing industry at large? Through my article below I endeavor to answer these and many more questions.
Ab-initio we will refresh the fundamentals of federalism, stating the Roles, Duties, Nature, Scope and Restrictions on the government in a written federal constitution. Next we proceed to see whether the above attempt by the federal government to accede healthcare legislation is ultra-vires the powers granted by the US Constitution.

What is Federalism?

According to the traditional classification followed by the political scientists, constitutions are either unitary or federal. In a unitary constitution, the powers of the government are centralized in one government viz., the Central Government. In the federal constitution, on the contrary, there is a division of power between the federal and the state governments in a way that they are both inter-dependent and independent at the same time.
As we all know that Constitutions are organic documents which operate as fundamental law. The governments and their organs owe their origin to the constitution, derive their authority from the constitution and discharge their responsibilities within the framework of the constitution. The judiciary has the power to declare a law unconstitutional if the law is found to have contravened any provision of the constitution. The American Constitution is the oldest and a well praised example of federalism.

What are the powers granted by the US Constitution to the State Government?

Powers reserved for State Governments are:
• Establishing local governments
• Issuing licenses (driver, hunting, marriage, etc.)
• Regulating intrastate commerce
• Conducting elections
• Ratifying amendments to the U.S. Constitution
• Providing for public health and safety
• Exercising powers which are neither delegated to the Federal Government nor were prohibited from the States by the Federal Constitution (residuary powers)
• Framing other domestic law (for example, setting legal drinking and smoking ages etc.)

Conceptualizing Mental Health Care Utilization Using The Health Belief Model

The process of change in psychotherapy, regardless of the clinician's orientation, length of treatment, or outcome measure, begins with this: The client must attend a first session. However, several national surveys in the past decade converge on a rate of approximately one-third of individuals diagnosed with a mental disorder receiving any professional treatment (Alegría, Bijl, Lin, Walters, & Kessler, 2000; Andrews, Issakidis, & Carter, 2001; Wang et al., 2005). A review of the literature surrounding mental health utilization reveals evidence that a complex array of psychological, social, and demographic factors influence a distressed individual's arrival to a mental health clinic. Thus, developing effective strategies for decreasing barriers to care is a critical task for clinicians and administrators. The

aim of this article was to review current research focused on appropriate utilization of mental health services and to use the Health Belief Model (HBM; Becker, 1974) as a parsimonious model for conceptualizing the current knowledge base, as well as predicting and suggesting future research and implementation strategies in the field.

First, it is important to address whether increasing mental health service use is an appropriate public health goal. A World Health Organization (WHO) survey comparing individuals with severe, moderate, or mild disorder symptoms indicated that approximately half of those surveyed went untreated in the past year (WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium, 2004), with even less treatment among those with more severe symptoms. Many costs are associated with untreated mental disorders, including overuse of primary care services for a variety of reasons (Katon, 2003; White et al., 2008), lost productivity for businesses and lost wages for employees (Adler et al., 2006), as well as the negative impact of mental disorders on medical disorders, such as diabetes and hypertension (Katon & Ciechanowski, 2002). These com

bined expenses have been calculated to rival some of the most common and costly physical disorders, such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes (Druss, Rosenheck, & Sledge, 2000; Katon et al., 2008).

The consequences of providing additional services to address unmet need may vary by the cost-effectiveness of treatment, availability of providers, and the interaction of mental health symptoms with other illnesses. Medical cost offset and cost-effectiveness research address these questions (for further review, see Blount et al., 2007; Hunsley, 2003). Medical cost offset refers to the estimation of cost savings produced by reduced use of services for primary care as a result of providing psychological services. Reduced medical expenses could occur for several reasons: increased adherence to lifestyle recommendation changes such as diet, exercise, smoking, or taking medications; improved psychological and physical health; and reduction in unnecessary medical visits which serve a secondary purpose (e.g

Health Care Bill Passed - What Does This Mean For Latinos?

A most recent topic of everyday discussion is the passing of the new Health Care Reform Bill by U.S. President Barack Obama. The new bill will have a dramatic impact on millions of Americans for years to come, but it seems the population that may be affected the most are the Latinos. Many questions are arising from the Latin population, but little answers are being given. How will the Health Care Bill address needs of Hispanics? Who will be responsible for illegal immigrants that don't have health insurance? Or will there be enough doctors that are aware of culture and know Spanish that can attend to Latinos needs? These are all major concerns of the U.S. Latin people. From the outside it seems policymakers have tunnel vision and only looking at the present day issue and not taking into consideration the future. Latinos are the most rapid growing minority in the states, which means years down the road another reform will be needed.

Latinos Impact Living in the U.S.

The estimation for Hispanics living in the U.S. from the 2010 Census is around 50 million. They make up about 15% of the population representing the largest ethnic minority in the country. By 2050 it is estimated that Latinos will represent 60%. If you do the math that is a 45% increase. The percentage of Hispanic-origin population that live in California or Texas is 49%, with 13 other states that each have a half a million Hispanic residents. Here is another interesting fact is that around 1.1 million Latino veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces are serving our country. The point that is being made is that this is a strong growing minority, which also needs to be addressed more closely on the healthcare bill.

Health Care for Latinos

So what does Health care mean for Latinos? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated that illegal immigrants will not be insured under the current proposals. And the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has made known that health insurance is only for legal immigrants who pay their fair share for health care. But everyone is required to buy insurance or else pay the fine. Many are saying that this will lead to a disaster for health care by leaving illegal Latino immigrants uninsured. The major issues that continue to be discussion among Hispanics are insurance coverage, access to care, health care costs, and of course quality of care. All these worries seem to not be answered entirely for Latinos and Americans for that matter.

Is Universal Healthcare A Good Idea?

Firstly I want to be clear this post is not stating if the current US health care reform is a good idea or not. It is a post of my thoughts on universal health care in general. With the US currently reforming the health care system to include a public option for those that are uninsured, and many other countries having this already in place, it is a discussion worth having.

The idea of people, especially children, not having proper health care to ensure a healthy and happy life is very saddening to me. There are many incredible treatments and medicines currently available, and being created, that they should not be restricted to those that are fortunate enough to have a job that provides health care. I think this is especially relevant to the current US economy where many people do not even have jobs let alone health care. With a country that is a self described beacon for the world we should not leave our citizens to suffer and die when poor fortune comes their way. We are a country that when times get rough we help our neighbors in knowing that any of us can run into bad situations as well. And this is in my opinion is an example of where we can help those that want to be self sufficient but are facing difficulties.

Hit-001 Comptia Healthcare It Technician Test

The field of Information Technology is getting tougher and more competitive. That is why IT professionals should not be satisfied with the degree instead they should strive to obtain IT certification. CompTIA is one of the companies offering various certifications for interested IT professionals. The good news is that they are not only offering technical certifications but they also open certification exams for those in the healthcare industry.

Nowadays, there are many colleges offering courses on HIT career. This is the reason why many companies are offering certification. The CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Test is given to healthcare professionals in order to evaluate their skills and knowledge in implementing, deploying and supporting healthcare IT systems. This means that It professionals who work in the healthcare sector should obtain this certification that will help in improving not only their skills but also their profiles.

The examination for HIT-001 covers organizational behavior, regulatory requirements, IT operations, security and medical business operations. Interested candidates should possess a basic understanding about the practice workflow and at the same time following the code of conduct, policies as well as security best practices. However, IT professionals who intend to take the exam should be CompTIA A+ certified. Likewise, IT professionals that have 500 hour hands-on technical experience in a laboratory or field can also take the examination.

A Whimsical And Illustrative, If Impractical, Approach To Solving The Health Care Crisis

It has always been the view of many thoughtful Americans that Obama Care and the politicians that wrote the voluminous and unreadable 2000+ page legislation got it all wrong. They assumed that the problem was escalating health care costs and then wrote legislation to treat this symptom, not the underlying root causes. High costs are an outcome because of other factors.

It is as if the political class is treating a cough but do not understand whether the cough is caused by allergies, the flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, cancer, strep throat, etc. Unless you know what the underlying disease is, if you treat only the symptom, in this case high and escalating health care costs, the chances of success are quite low.

If you look at the literature on the health state of most Americans, you find a consistent pattern:

- Americans smoke too much.

- Americans eat too much.

- Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of foods.

- Americans do not get enough exercise.

- Americans in general are getting older.

The first four items in this list are modifiable behaviors. They are the key to getting health care costs under control. Obama, Reid, Pelosi, et al never understood this. They raised taxes and implemented new taxes and fees, they created an untold number of new government agencies, they will criminalize millions of Americans for not bowing down to Obama Care and buying mandatory health insurance for themselves, etc. They treated the symptom of high health care costs as a tax, control, and bureaucracy problem, not a behavior and aging problem. Their chances of success are very small, assuming the legislation ever gets fully implemented and is not declared unconstitutional.

They also did not understand that forcing a human being to do something is never the best way to get something done. If you can make someone want to and like to do something from a behavior perspective, they are 1) more likely to do it, 2 ) do it with more conviction and 3) do it for a longer period of time. Forcing an American to do anything just gets their ire up and robs them of the freedom of choice, something a government should rarely, if ever, do in a democracy.

This is where some creativity and originality may have been a much better approach, in conjunction with modifying behavior relative to good health habits. We got none of this creative thinking from those in charge of Obama Care, it was the same old overbearing, freedom robbing, inefficient government control approach. Maybe they should have looked at a specific YouTube video for some of that refreshing new thinking. this video can be viewed by going to the YouTube website and searching for "odenplan, sweden, stairs, escalator, piano."

Staying Healthy With Natural Health Care

With the growing number of medical issues surrounding the current health care system, people are becoming increasingly frustrated with treatment results and the expense of maintaining personal health. Are you concerned about or wondering if it's possible to naturally treat health issues without killing yourself? A growing number of people are turning to alternative medicine and natural health care and doing so very successfully. Natural, everyday, common sense methods of preventing illness and maintaining optimal health do exist.

What does your body need to maintain proper health?

This is a question that continues to be asked, why, I don't know, because there are no hidden secrets about this. In fact I'm sure you probably already know the answer.

o Proper diet

It is known that many health problems (heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and others) are exasperated by improper and poor diets. We live in a fast paced world driven by extreme commercialism that bombards us with images of super sized hamburgers, fries and extra large sodas. Many of our foods come in boxes loaded with artificial ingredients and real, un-natural, man-made chemicals to help us exist in our fast paced life. The first thing we need to do in maintaining our health is to get back to a healthy natural food based diet.

o Moderate exercise

Sitting on the couch watching TV or driving the car to the mailbox is not moderate exercise. Walking, bicycling, swimming, tennis, hiking, gymnastics, dancing and weight training are forms of exercise that we need in our daily lives. Achieving 30 minutes of some form of cardiovascular activity several times a week has a huge payback in maintenance of health, appearance, and well being.

Health Care Reform Wayback - A Brief History of Health Care Reform in the USA

Is Health Care Reform New?

As somebody who is very interested in the progress of health care reform as a taxpayer, private consumer of health insurance and services, and as a professional, I have been trying to follow the current health reform debates. I am getting a little frustrated with the lack of progress on either side of the aisle, and also by some of the knee jerk reactions by politicians and their groupies.. You would think that the current administration, and its political adversaries, had just invented health reform or the cries of outrage that sound against it.

I decided to do my best to outline some of the highlights of the health reform attempts, failures, and progress in the past 100 years or so. I am not a professional historian, by any means, so some may feel as if I left out important things or took them out of context. I am trying to be balanced, but take all the blame if I neglected something you feel is important.

Teddy Roosevelt In the 1910's

Teddy Roosevelt ran on a very progressive platform in the early part of the last century. His campaign promises for 1912 included protection for workers safety on the job women's right to vote, and a national health care program. He was president of the United States, by the way, from 1901 - 1909. But he lost the election of 1912 to Woodrow Wilson. It is interesting to note that this Roosevelt was a Republic. Wilson was the Democrat. Never assume that American party politics are set in stone.

Early Models of Current Health Insurance and Cries of Socialism

In 1929, Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas came up with a pre-paid program for a large areal teacher's union. This is considered one of the earliest models of health insurance. Now here's the irony. A few years later, an Oklahoma doctor formed a farmer's association with a pre-paid plan. Members of the association would pay into the plan, and then get services covered. The American Medical Association called this doctor's plan socialism!

Despite this, pre-paid hospital and doctor plans continued to grow in popularity around the US. However, they usually left out the unemployed and elderly.

The New Deal in the 1930's

Another Roosevelt, FDR, also wanted to implement national health reform. He wanted to include it as part of social security legislation. That did not work out, but even Truman wanted to set up a national fund. for health care. He figured everybody could pay in, like we do for social security, and then it could make sure that people's most severe health needs were met. All of this was left out of the New Deal, and the AMA continued to criticize it as socialism.

Health Care Reform - Why Are People So Worked Up?

Why are Americans so worked up about health care reform? Statements such as "don't touch my Medicare" or "everyone should have access to state of the art health care irrespective of cost" are in my opinion uninformed and visceral responses that indicate a poor understanding of our health care system's history, its current and future resources and the funding challenges that America faces going forward. While we all wonder how the health care system has reached what some refer to as a crisis stage. Let's try to take some of the emotion out of the debate by briefly examining how health care in this country emerged and how that has formed our thinking and culture about health care. With that as a foundation let's look at the pros and cons of the Obama administration health care reform proposals and let's look at the concepts put forth by the Republicans?

Access to state of the art health care services is something we can all agree would be a good thing for this country. Experiencing a serious illness is one of life's major challenges and to face it without the means to pay for it is positively frightening. But as we shall see, once we know the facts, we will find that achieving this goal will not be easy without our individual contribution.

These are the themes I will touch on to try to make some sense out of what is happening to American health care and the steps we can personally take to make things better.

    A recent history of American health care - what has driven the costs so high?
    Key elements of the Obama health care plan
    The Republican view of health care - free market competition
    Universal access to state of the art health care - a worthy goal but not easy to achieve
    what can we do?

First, let's get a little historical perspective on American health care. This is not intended to be an exhausted look into that history but it will give us an appreciation of how the health care system and our expectations for it developed. What drove costs higher and higher?

To begin, let's turn to the American civil war. In that war, dated tactics and the carnage inflicted by modern weapons of the era combined to cause ghastly results. Not generally known is that most of the deaths on both sides of that war were not the result of actual combat but to what happened after a battlefield wound was inflicted. To begin with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail's pace and this caused severe delays in treating the wounded. Secondly, many wounds were subjected to wound care, related surgeries and/or amputations of the affected limbs and this often resulted in the onset of massive infection. So you might survive a battle wound only to die at the hands of medical care providers who although well-intentioned, their interventions were often quite lethal. High death tolls can also be ascribed to everyday sicknesses and diseases in a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like 600,000 deaths occurred from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population at the time!

Let's skip to the first half of the 20th century for some additional perspective and to bring us up to more modern times. After the civil war there were steady improvements in American medicine in both the understanding and treatment of certain diseases, new surgical techniques and in physician education and training. But for the most part the best that doctors could offer their patients was a "wait and see" approach. Medicine could handle bone fractures and increasingly attempt risky surgeries (now largely performed in sterile surgical environments) but medicines were not yet available to handle serious illnesses. The majority of deaths remained the result of untreatable conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and measles and/or related complications. Doctors were increasingly aware of heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but they had almost nothing with which to treat these conditions.

This very basic review of American medical history helps us to understand that until quite recently (around the 1950's) we had virtually no technologies with which to treat serious or even minor ailments. Here is a critical point we need to understand; "nothing to treat you with means that visits to the doctor if at all were relegated to emergencies so in such a scenario costs are curtailed. The simple fact is that there was little for doctors to offer and therefore virtually nothing to drive health care spending. A second factor holding down costs was that medical treatments that were provided were paid for out-of-pocket, meaning by way of an individuals personal resources. There was no such thing as health insurance and certainly not health insurance paid by an employer. Except for the very destitute who were lucky to find their way into a charity hospital, health care costs were the responsibility of the individual.

What does health care insurance have to do with health care costs? Its impact on health care costs has been, and remains to this day, absolutely enormous. When health insurance for individuals and families emerged as a means for corporations to escape wage freezes and to attract and retain employees after World War II, almost overnight a great pool of money became available to pay for health care. Money, as a result of the availability of billions of dollars from health insurance pools, encouraged an innovative America to increase medical research efforts. More Americans became insured not only through private, employer sponsored health insurance but through increased government funding that created Medicare and Medicaid (1965). In addition funding became available for expanded veterans health care benefits. Finding a cure for almost anything has consequently become very lucrative. This is also the primary reason for the vast array of treatments we have available today.

A Prescription For the Healthcare Crisis

With all the shouting going on about America's health care crisis, many are probably finding it difficult to concentrate, much less understand the cause of the problems confronting us. I find myself dismayed at the tone of the discussion (though I understand it---people are scared) as well as bemused that anyone would presume themselves sufficiently qualified to know how to best improve our health care system simply because they've encountered it, when people who've spent entire careers studying it (and I don't mean politicians) aren't sure what to do themselves.

Albert Einstein is reputed to have said that if he had an hour to save the world he'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only 5 minutes solving it. Our health care system is far more complex than most who are offering solutions admit or recognize, and unless we focus most of our efforts on defining its problems and thoroughly understanding their causes, any changes we make are just likely to make them worse as they are better.

Though I've worked in the American health care system as a physician since 1992 and have seven year's worth of experience as an administrative director of primary care, I don't consider myself qualified to thoroughly evaluate the viability of most of the suggestions I've heard for improving our health care system. I do think, however, I can at least contribute to the discussion by describing some of its troubles, taking reasonable guesses at their causes, and outlining some general principles that should be applied in attempting to solve them.

THE PROBLEM OF COST

No one disputes that health care spending in the U.S. has been rising dramatically. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), health care spending is projected to reach $8,160 per person per year by the end of 2009 compared to the $356 per person per year it was in 1970. This increase occurred roughly 2.4% faster than the increase in GDP over the same period. Though GDP varies from year-to-year and is therefore an imperfect way to assess a rise in health care costs in comparison to other expenditures from one year to the next, we can still conclude from this data that over the last 40 years the percentage of our national income (personal, business, and governmental) we've spent on health care has been rising.

Despite what most assume, this may or may not be bad. It all depends on two things: the reasons why spending on health care has been increasing relative to our GDP and how much value we've been getting for each dollar we spend.

Great Choice of Business Financing

Conventional Business Loan that uses collateral especially property is no longer popular. The only reason why its popularity declines drastically is the unstable price of housing industry. There have been many lenders who became victims where the borrowers could not pay back and the collateral which was housing property was not able to cover borrowers’ total loan. Unsecured business line of credit is the type of loan which gains popularity in recent years. It is unsecured loan because it involves higher risk to the lenders because in this type of loan, borrowers do not have to submit any collateral to the lenders.

The maximum amount of Unsecured Business Loans that borrowers can acquire is $1 million. This amount can be acquired if borrowers have full documentation during applying process. With $1 million business loans, business owners can conduct business expansion or cover the financial problem. For small business owners, small business loans from Ezunsecured.com are one of recommended loans for your business. EZ Unsecured is well known among lenders and borrowers. This company has been connecting more than 100,000 borrowers to more than 2,000 lenders in its lending network. The requirements for the unsecured business loans are very simple. Two general requirements include your business must have been running for more than 2 years and your business has at least 680 credit score.

Business Financing is common in running business. Financing is not always related with financial problem but financing can be about business expansion. Whatever target that you want to achieve with financing, get the unsecured loans only from EZunsecured.com. The approval rate offered by this company is higher than its competitors. While other competitors only have an average of 10% approval rate, EZ Unsecured has an average of 60%. Moreover, EZ Unsecured is supported by the famous Lendio loan network.

Most recommended anti aging products

Women are the most beautiful gem in the world. This label makes them want to look as beautiful as possible when they appear in front of public. Aging is their arch enemy. They do not want to look old although they have to do so. That is why they need anti aging product that can slow down their aging. One most recommended product is Guinot. This product is very good for women because this combining modern technology and natural sources which can produce a perfect product that can be used by people at various ages. This product can also be used by men. This anti aging product can cover a factor that cannot be handled by people themselves that is natural factor. It can slow it down and make your skin look younger than your actual age. The product mentioned afore is not the only product that becomes recommendation from skin experts. Another product that able to control people’s skin aging is Jurlique. The Australian products are very effective in controlling people’s skin aging. It is common knowledge that aging cannot be stopped. The only thing people can do is slowing down its aging by accelerating skin cell regeneration. This product is very effective in regenerating women’s skin cells. Besides those two product, Paris which is known as the center of fashion and beauty also presents its anti aging product. The product names Sothys. The products from Paris are available in many variants. You can find them in a form of cream, serum, or emulsion. The products are also used a combination from modern technology and natural sources which are allowed the consumers get the best result without any negative side effect. Natural sources are the best ingredients for anti aging skin care. To get a perfect result, you have to ensure that your products are made of natural sources.

Tips in getting the right dermatologist

A lot of people in this world, especially women, need to have a bright and beautiful skin. This will be even more important for artist and film star. Being a film star, these people need to stay beautiful because this is what they sell. No wonder, the best dermatology Austin is the thing that these people are looking for when they want to make their skin more beautiful or just to keep their skin healthy. Fortunately, dermatologist has not been, and it is not supposed to be, monopolized by the artist and film star only. If you want to make your skin healthy or you want to make your skin more beautiful, you can go to the nearest and trusted dermatologist to get your skin treated right. If you have never been in the dermatologist center, there are the things that you need to know about dermatologist and I hope that by knowing this, you will be able to choose the best and the right dermatologist for you.

First of all, when you have a plan to see the dermatologist, what you need to do is to get along with the dermatologist first without even meeting him or her. So, how do you do it? What you have to do for this tip is to search for the dermatologist’s information using the internet. I am sure that the internet will give you bad and good things about the dermatologist that you are about to go to. Second of all, always search for some reference when you are looking for the right dermatologist. The reference should be from the doctor since the doctor will give you any idea about where you should go and what kind of service that you will need to have from that dermatologist you are about to go to.

Focusing on Medical Health Care Concerns

Almost half of the nearly 5 trillion dollars in medical and health care related activities can be accounted for in the US. It is obvious that our country has well trained professionals, outstanding technology and a vast array of medication designed to address health concerns. Yet, why is medical care so costly and problematic for so many individuals to receive?

The Growth of Medical Care

For most of the worlds more developed countries the medical field is one of their largest industries. If you count the money generated by medication sales, diagnostics, nursing homes, hospitals, physicians, and other ancillary activities it is quite easy to see why the medical industry accounts for 10-20% of a country's gross production.

In the US alone there are nearly 800,000 medical doctors, more than 5000 hospitals and millions of health care workers. One of every dozen US citizens works in health care now and this number is expected to grow. Still there are not enough workers and facilities to handle the 20 million outpatients that are currently being seen every day. This staggering amount of outpatient visits does not include the average daily count of 4 -5 million hospitalized patients.

The vast, complex health care industry in the United States is one that attracts people from around the globe. Switzerland and Germany both have large medical industries, but these countries run their health care differently from the US. Could it be possible that our nation's health care will soon be undergoing a radical type of change?

Answers are Difficult to Find

Is the answer to the current health care dilemma as simple as nationalizing health care for all? Will this possibility only make the situation worse? How will the medical resources be allocated among the various segments of our society? These are only a few of the questions that are waiting to be answered.

Controversial Topic

Today medical health has become a controversial subject among many groups of citizens. There is talk of overhauling the medical system as we now know it. We are also hearing predictions that the government will try to restructure the nation's health care system. Although much of this rhetoric has been publicized for a number of years it seems that people are becoming more polarized by the possible changes that are now constantly making headlines.

The Senior Citizens Have their own Concerns

The elderly population in the US is keeping a close eye on what is being proposed because health care and medication issues are of great concern to them. Medical and insurance coverage for people 65 and older have undergone many changes since the 1980s. Most senior citizens are very vocal about their displeasure with the way Medicare is addressing the problems, and they are also worried about what the future might hold. The costs of health care and medication needs are extremely high for senior citizens as a whole. Every year they are fearful of having their benefits cut even further, and now they have new worries regarding medical care.

Groups at Risk

It has been just a few short weeks since Governor Sara Palin galvanized many citizens with her predictions and comments about "death panels" and nationalized health care. While there were many people who rallied around her statements, the mere possibility of such radical notions began sending shock waves through the nation. This was particularly unnerving to a large percentage of our elderly population. It was also causing concern among advocates for the poor and disabled. Even parents and caretakers of people with physical and mental challenges were becoming alarmed, and feeling threatened.

Future Allocation of Health Care Resources?

Could it be possible that Medical professionals would possibly agree to form commissions that would allocate health care resources to those they deemed most deserving? This thought was both frightening and "Orwellian" in prospect. A careful review showed that there was no written documentation that actually stated such possibilities, but this did not alleviate the fear and worry of many ordinary citizens. Just the idea that access to hospitalization or medication needs might one day be restricted was enough to generate small scale panic in many communities across the nation.

Problems, Problems, Problems

Medical concerns, health care and affordable medication plans are major sources of worry for everyone today. Insurance coverage is very expensive. There is a growing trend among companies to provide less employee and family benefits in order to cut costs. In some cases this is making it difficult for employees to participate in the insurance plans being offered by their employers. However a growing number of families are too cash strapped to afford health insurance premiums on their own. This is creating a "Catch 22" type of environment with people unable to afford the cost of becoming sick as well as the cost of being insured.

No End To Rising Health Care Costs

Everyone knows the cost of health care is rising every year with no end in site. Many families are burdened with premiums that are eating up a large portion of their budget. Those with health insurance plans through work are seeing their out of pocket costs grow. Some employees are even paying more for benefits at work then they would on their own.

A RAND Corp study, released in September of 2011, examined the health care an the average American family's budget from 1999 to 2009. While the average family saw a 30% increase in their income, much of that was wiped out by greater gains in the cost of medical care. Inflation and higher taxes further decimated the gains.

They found that monthly premiums for health insurance grew by 128% over the decade studied. This is well beyond the rate of inflation. Prices on all goods tend to go up over time due to the devaluation of currency called inflation. But when a price for a good goes up faster then inflation, it becomes relatively more expensive then other goods in the economy. This is precisely what is happening with health care. When people are forced to spend relatively more on a good, they feel they are taking a step backward in terms of the living standard.

Making matters worse, many people who receive their health benefits through their employer are seeing lower wage gains. An employer has to take the total cost of an employee into account, and that includes what the employer spends on health benefits. When health care costs increase for the employer, they have actually increased the amount they spend per employee, only it doesn't feel that way to the worker. The worker is indeed getting a raise, it is just going directly to their health care costs. As health care costs for employers continue to rise, it will put downward pressure on wages.

Health care costs are going up for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, patients now have access to cutting edge - and expensive - medical procedures that were not available before. While these procedures extend people's lives and well being, they are very expensive and have to be paid for. Additionally, with few patients paying the direct cost of medical care, rather paying their insurance company, the market for medical care becomes distorted.

Another reason for the recent surge in health care costs is the recent Affordable Care Act. One of the new requirements is that employer plans now cover children up to the age of 26. While that may help provide insurance to young adults, it comes at a cost. A survey by the Kaiser Family foundation found that the cost for premiums on employer heath insurance plans increased by 9% in 2010. The increase in premiums has put even more downward pressure on wages during the weak economy.

Many employers are now putting some, if not all, of the cost of health care on to their employees. Many workers are now paying part of the monthly premium and often a large deductible as part of their plan. Often times, if they are young and have no pre-existing conditions, they can purchase private health insurance at a lower price then they are paying for their work plan.

There is no end in sight to rising health care costs. Medical advances will continue, the American population is aging, and reforms in Washington do not seem likely to help reduce the cost of health care.