Essay on Senior Citizens
Today with a number of people approaching the age of maturity, which will soon drastically increase due to the Baby Boomers, more people under the age fifty will have the burden of paying for those seniors. An end result will be that the government will raise costs for goods and medical services, which again more of the younger generation will have to pay a larger amount too.
Right now, with the current expenditures of Social Security to senior citizens, federal taxes will increase beginning on or around the year 2010. This increase will start paying back the Social Security fund which will be operating in a deficit. As of now many politicians and the Social Security Administration pretend that this problem doesn’t exist, and that there is nothing to worry over. If nothing is changed between now and then, there are only two choices, both of which seem impossible: cut benefits or raise taxes on still employed workers. By this time the Baby Boomers will have already paid major amounts of money into Social Security, some as much as $250,000 a person. By the time this group approaches the retirement age, the younger people will have suffered a significant decrease in the standard of living due to the considerable increase in income taxes to support the retired population. When this occurs, the retired will have the longest laid-back retirement, which by then will be the longest recorded retirement in human history. This problem will be due to the Government and Social Security.
__________________________________________________________Right now, with the current expenditures of Social Security to senior citizens, federal taxes will increase beginning on or around the year 2010. This increase will start paying back the Social Security fund which will be operating in a deficit. As of now many politicians and the Social Security Administration pretend that this problem doesn’t exist, and that there is nothing to worry over. If nothing is changed between now and then, there are only two choices, both of which seem impossible: cut benefits or raise taxes on still employed workers. By this time the Baby Boomers will have already paid major amounts of money into Social Security, some as much as $250,000 a person. By the time this group approaches the retirement age, the younger people will have suffered a significant decrease in the standard of living due to the considerable increase in income taxes to support the retired population. When this occurs, the retired will have the longest laid-back retirement, which by then will be the longest recorded retirement in human history. This problem will be due to the Government and Social Security.
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By the time the current youth reaches the age of getting the benefits of Social Security, retirement, and Medicare, there will be less coming to them than the elderly of today. It should be considered that now would be the correct time to review the notion of giving out senior citizen discounts to such a large degree. There also should be a cut back on who exactly gets Medicare. The Government should consider giving benefits only to the elderly that are truly in need of medical attention. In some cases this is already starting to be done. The percentage of physicians willing to accept new Medicare patients has dropped by fourteen percent since June 2001. These physicians primarily are located in California and Texas. The reasoning behind this is the Medicare+Choice program. This program was established to ease elderly into managed care. Medicare+Choice is currently suffering from dissatisfaction with HMO payment rates; which is causing physicians to drop out Medicare patients or reduce services. Within the year 2001 over 64,000 beneficiaries were dropped.
Some of the younger population that have illnesses and diseases are also in desperate need of money; they are the ones that don’t have a constant flow of money coming to them. By the time the youth of today has grown and aged there will be little to nothing left for them. Benefits to the elderly should not be completely eliminated, but the system should be adjusted to help everyone out equally, not just one particular section of the population.
Today more people give benefits and help to the elderly, the people we call senior citizens (ages 50 and up), where there is less help for people under the age of fifty. Not all people with illnesses and diseases are senior citizens; sadly enough, most are younger patients, and some are even children. An issue that makes it even more sad is that some of these children and young patients who are dying and suffering get a reduced amount of attention because they don’t have a steady amount of money coming to them, unlike a lot of senior citizens.
For example, senior citizens are already getting the benefits of Social Security, pensions, Medicare, and discounts from places such as restaurants, movie theatres, and many others. Where is the equality to the younger generation, the generation that wasn’t born a Baby Boomer or earlier?
Should senior citizens with high prescription drug cost have their costs subsidized? Maybe so, but there are younger health patients with serious illnesses that also require very expensive drug prescriptions, and some of them receive no financial support from the government at all. Why is that? Some of these younger patients receive no benefits from Medicare, unlike most senior citizen patients. Some of the younger patients are able to get Medicaid, which is equivalent to Medicare. Though there is one catch, the parents have to make a certain amount of money to be able to qualify for Medicaid.
As difficult as some of these questions may seem, they still should all be properly addressed. In years to come, cases will be brought to court of age discrimination in medical issues. Why do senior patients get more attention than ones of the younger age? Why are elderly patients getting their bills covered by the government and younger patients are not? Cases such as these will be difficult for some courts and judges to handle. There isn’t much that can be done when a child’s parent doesn’t receive the correct type of insurance needed through their job to cover their child’s medical issues and concerns. Currently a program called CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) was founded. CHIP was designed so a child can still receive insurance, even though a parent(s) has a higher income and doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. So something is starting to happen. CHIP is only one program though, why aren’t there more?
In conclusion, the government needs to become fairer to people of all ages and not just of one section of the population. Everybody in the U.S. needs adequate care. Seniors do receive the majority of long and short term care, but children do need care as well.
By the time the current youth reaches the age of getting the benefits of Social Security, retirement, and Medicare, there will be less coming to them than the elderly of today. It should be considered that now would be the correct time to review the notion of giving out senior citizen discounts to such a large degree. There also should be a cut back on who exactly gets Medicare. The Government should consider giving benefits only to the elderly that are truly in need of medical attention. In some cases this is already starting to be done. The percentage of physicians willing to accept new Medicare patients has dropped by fourteen percent since June 2001. These physicians primarily are located in California and Texas. The reasoning behind this is the Medicare+Choice program. This program was established to ease elderly into managed care. Medicare+Choice is currently suffering from dissatisfaction with HMO payment rates; which is causing physicians to drop out Medicare patients or reduce services. Within the year 2001 over 64,000 beneficiaries were dropped.
Some of the younger population that have illnesses and diseases are also in desperate need of money; they are the ones that don’t have a constant flow of money coming to them. By the time the youth of today has grown and aged there will be little to nothing left for them. Benefits to the elderly should not be completely eliminated, but the system should be adjusted to help everyone out equally, not just one particular section of the population.
Today more people give benefits and help to the elderly, the people we call senior citizens (ages 50 and up), where there is less help for people under the age of fifty. Not all people with illnesses and diseases are senior citizens; sadly enough, most are younger patients, and some are even children. An issue that makes it even more sad is that some of these children and young patients who are dying and suffering get a reduced amount of attention because they don’t have a steady amount of money coming to them, unlike a lot of senior citizens.
For example, senior citizens are already getting the benefits of Social Security, pensions, Medicare, and discounts from places such as restaurants, movie theatres, and many others. Where is the equality to the younger generation, the generation that wasn’t born a Baby Boomer or earlier?
Should senior citizens with high prescription drug cost have their costs subsidized? Maybe so, but there are younger health patients with serious illnesses that also require very expensive drug prescriptions, and some of them receive no financial support from the government at all. Why is that? Some of these younger patients receive no benefits from Medicare, unlike most senior citizen patients. Some of the younger patients are able to get Medicaid, which is equivalent to Medicare. Though there is one catch, the parents have to make a certain amount of money to be able to qualify for Medicaid.
As difficult as some of these questions may seem, they still should all be properly addressed. In years to come, cases will be brought to court of age discrimination in medical issues. Why do senior patients get more attention than ones of the younger age? Why are elderly patients getting their bills covered by the government and younger patients are not? Cases such as these will be difficult for some courts and judges to handle. There isn’t much that can be done when a child’s parent doesn’t receive the correct type of insurance needed through their job to cover their child’s medical issues and concerns. Currently a program called CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) was founded. CHIP was designed so a child can still receive insurance, even though a parent(s) has a higher income and doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. So something is starting to happen. CHIP is only one program though, why aren’t there more?
In conclusion, the government needs to become fairer to people of all ages and not just of one section of the population. Everybody in the U.S. needs adequate care. Seniors do receive the majority of long and short term care, but children do need care as well.
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Warning!!! All free online essays, sample essays and essay examples on Senior Citizens topics are plagiarized and cannot be completely used in your school, college or university education.
If you need a custom essay, dissertation, thesis, term paper or research paper on your topic, EffectivePapers.com will write your papers from scratch. We work with experienced PhD and Master's freelance writers to help you with writing any academic papers in any subject! We guarantee each customer great quality and no plagiarism!
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Warning!!! All free online essays, sample essays and essay examples on Senior Citizens topics are plagiarized and cannot be completely used in your school, college or university education.
If you need a custom essay, dissertation, thesis, term paper or research paper on your topic, EffectivePapers.com will write your papers from scratch. We work with experienced PhD and Master's freelance writers to help you with writing any academic papers in any subject! We guarantee each customer great quality and no plagiarism!
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