Don’t get me wrong, Medicare is a wonderful program, but it does need to be overhauled to meet the needs of our time, and the foreseeable future. Here are some more reasons why.
Therapies
Medicare is starting to pay for a few preventive services. In 2005, Medicare began paying part of the costs for a onetime physical for new enrollees, and a blood test every five years to screen for heart disease, but it still does not cover physical therapy, occupational therapy, or other rehabilitation services if it cannot be shown that the patient is improving. Many ill and disabled individuals need these services over a long period of time so they don’t lose more ground, to help maintain current functions, or to slow down the impact of a debilitating disease. If your loved one falls and breaks a hip, Medicare will pay for him to go to the hospital and have an operation, but not for therapies aimed at preventing the fall in the first place.
Caregiving Goods and Services
Medicare does not cover basic supplies that are needed by many caregiving families—the most obvious being adult incontinence products. These can easily cost $1,800 annually.
Medicare will pay for supplies, however, if someone requires catheterization. Releasing urine from the body with an implement is considered a medical procedure, and therefore
it is covered, whereas capturing urine if it just flows uncontrollably from the body is not. Isn’t it all about the same thing, controlling urination?
Medicare does not cover any of the costs of home modification to make a house safe for a senior or person with disabilities, such as grab bars in the bathroom or building a ramp
at the front door. And perhaps it shouldn’t. After all these are not medical expenses. Yet research shows that everyone would much rather stay in their own home than go to an institution. The Supreme Court even ruled in the 1999 Olmstead decision that people should have the ability to live in the “least restrictive setting” possible, which, for most of us, is at home. It would seem that being able to pay for the means to do so and prevent accidents from happening should be part of the bargain.
