Expanding Medicare to Include Prescription Drug Coverage :: essays papers

Expanding Medicargon to Include Prescription Drug Cover advanceIntroduction passim the past year of presidential campaigning, one of the top issues for both candidates has been that of whether or not there should be a prescription-drug turn a profit added to Medicare. Both George W. render and Al Gore have proposed a plan to expand Medicare to take on full prescription-drug coverage for senior(a) citizens receiving Medicare, at the expense of assesspayers. It is obvious wherefore this issue has been such a priority for both candidates. Senior citizens suffrage at a much higher rate than other age groups. Both candidates know the importance of these senior citizen votes and believe that the proposal of adding a prescription-drug benefit is something that impart appeal to a vast number of senior citizens. Both candidates have portrayed the issue as being truly critical and as a serious problem that needs to be addressed. The question, however, is whether or not such drug coverage is a worthwhile project to undertake. Is the problem indeed serious enough to call for the eccentric person of reform that the candidates are proposing? Medicare is already a very costly course of information to keep up, and adding prescription-drug coverage would increase these costs even more. In localize to fund this project, there will need to be a tax hike. Should taxpayers subsidize this prescription-drug benefit? Is there a good reason wherefore this redistribution should take place? What are the benefits and costs of this proposal? These and other questions will be addressed in this paper as we examine the interest topics the need for senior citizens to have prescription-drug coverage, the political rhetoric involved with this issue, the communicate shortfall in the budget of the Medicare program, and who really would benefit if a prescription-drug benefit was added to Medicare.Need for Prescription-Drug Coverage Many people argue that the lack o f a prescription-drug benefit is the major shortcoming of the Medicare program. But are Medicare recipients really in need of such a benefit? According to a study done by the AARP Public Policy Institute, about 25.6 million, or 65 percent, of noninstitutionalized Medicare beneficiaries already receive some type of prescription-drug coverage, whether it is through employer-sponsored health plans or individually purchased private health policies. This leaves about 13.5 million Medicare beneficiaries who are without prescription-drug coverage.