BABY BOOMERS

Will Medicare Survive the Baby Boomers?



Will Medicare Survive the Baby Boomers?

Introduction

One of the topics that the us Medicare crisis is the aging of the baby boomers, baby boomers, the generation of children who were born in the 40s and 50s (of the greatest generation of World War II). The baby boomers were the largest and most financially successful generation, the world has ever known their existence plays an important role in the health care and availability to go ahead and note will be found for any viable mass solutions are taken.

Perhaps the biggest problems feeding our current are health care problems, the demand for it. You can with fifty other problems around the current system, but I would say - on one level - they all come from over-demand. We have simply not the resources to meet the entire current demand for health services. Anyone who has ever taken an economics course knows that the basic tenants of capitalism is that the price of where supply and demand is determined. if you have a limited and static-sufficiency and an ever- growing demand have, prices will increase - it is a fundamental fact. In our current system, this leads to health care is available for those who can afford it, while others either by relying on government subsidies (to draw the customer base is still on the tax dollars) to go or not at all (Weir, 2007). With the baby boomers in the area somewhere in the ages of 50 and 70 in the moment are they hit the age (if not already present), where health care is moving from a luxury or pure maintenance position to the absolute necessity for the continued survival (Schwabish, 2010).

Defining the Problem

The baby boomer generation will soon become eligible for Medicare in large numbers. On average, older people require more medical care than younger people. When more people use Medicare as their primary insurance provider, the amount Medicare reimburses per person will decrease assuming no additional allocation of funding beyond the historical levels. Current Medicare funding comes from the Federal Insurance Corporation Act (FICA) tax taken from workers' paychecks. In 2007 Medicare provided coverage for 44.1 million people. According to the US Census Bureau, the baby boomer generation totals 78.1 million people, a number far greater those currently covered under the program (Schwabish, 2010).

With the current number of workers roughly 75 percent larger than the number of Medicare recipients providing a subsequent $30 billion operating surplus in 2007, Medicare can sustainably operate the fund. This relationship will soon be reversed, as the baby boomers will retire and no longer pay into Medicare (Turnbull, 2008). However, the number of American workers that will remain will be the roughly 41 million individuals of Generation X, leaving a substantial disparity between those contributing to and those drawing from Medicare. The Millennials, those born to the baby boomers between the years 1977 and 1994, account for 70 million people, and the oldest of this generation have ...