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Topic of Hodges Univeristy forum: How can our health system survive?

By Staff | Mar 23, 2009

DATE: March 23, 2009

It was announced today that the Kenneth Oscar Johnson School of Business and the School of Allied Health at Hodges University, just outside Lehigh Acres, have teamed up to host a roundtable discussion on the economics of healthcare on Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. at the University’s campus on Colonial Blvd.

The round table, titled “How Can Our Health System Survive? Economics and Politics in Crisis,” will discuss why healthcare costs so much, why there is no healthcare system, what political decisions need to be made on both a local as well as national level to resolve the current crisis and what we in our region of Florida can do to improve the current situation locally and nationally.

AARP Manager of State Operations Jeff Johnson is available to talk about why these issues are important to so many Americans, Hodge University officials said.

In 2007, nearly 55 million Americans were in their 50s and early 60s. According to a recent AARP report (http://www.aarp.org/research/health/carefinancing/i24_hcr.html) that year 7.1 million (or 13 percent) of those Americans had no health insurance. In Florida, an astonishing 17.7 percent of adults 50- to 64-years-old were uninsured.

With millions of baby boomers still coming into this age group, their numbers will reach nearly 63 million by 2015. What does this mean for those who will soon be joining that age group?

This high cost of private health insurance is prohibitive for many older Americans. Two-thirds of those buying individual health coverage spent at least 10 percent of their disposable income on health, more than twice what those with employer coverage spent out-of-pocket, officials planning the forum said.

Because of this difference, the loss of employer-covered health care due to job loss or retirement can be crushing. What’s worse, 50- to 64-year-olds who cannot get private insurance cannot rely on public coverage; Medicaid requires that recipients not only be poor, but that they meet an additional requirement such as being the parent of a minor child, pregnant, disabled, or over the age of 65. Similarly, Medicare is only available to adults under the age of 65 if they are currently receiving Social Security disability income benefits.

The cost of health insurance for older Americans in less-than-perfect health is even higher. Seven in ten 50- to 64-year-olds say they have at least one chronic health condition, and nearly half have two or more chronic conditions. Those with two or more chronic conditions spend an average of three and a half times what an adult without chronic health conditions spend.

Health coverage must be reformed to provide access to this increasingly large group of Americans, promoters of the forum said. Not only are the burdens of health costs extreme for those between 50 and 64 years old, but denying them coverage now increases the costs to the public when they are eligible for Medicare, as the health of those who previously were uninsured will be in worse condition and require more care.

To respond to the problems faced by adults in their 50s and early 60s, reforms must:

– Reduce the disproportionately high cost of health care coverage to older Americans

– Find solutions so that those of any age and heath status has access to affordable coverage

– Provide a backstop for those who simply cannot afford or obtain private coverage