MikeLigalig.com

By Katherine Harbin

As U.S. politicians debate making cuts to health insurance programs like Medicare and the U.S. "baby boomer" generation approaches the retirement age, increasing attention is being paid to the U.S. health care for the elderly.

The United States has several safety net programs for senior citizens designed to provide them with a certain amount of financial security after retirement.

Financed by payroll taxes, which all Americans pay throughout their working years, government benefits for senior citizens have steadily increased since the implementation of the Social Security Act in 1935, which provided the states with grants for Old Age Assistance programs.

Thirty-five years later, the Social Security program was expanded with the 1965 creation of Medicare, a U.S. social insurance program designed to provide those over 65 with guaranteed government health insurance. According to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, 47 million Americans had Medicare health coverage in 2010.

Even with the benefits of the Social Security and Medicare programs, however, the cost of living is still high for U.S. senior citizens, and over time some retired persons may see their assets gradually decline to reach low-income levels.

It is at this point that senior citizens can also benefit from Medicaid, a program signed into law along with Medicare.

The Medicaid program provides health care to low-income Americans, and for senior citizens, it can also cover any leftover costs not covered by Medicare.

The U.S. Centers for the Medicare and Medicaid services estimated that there are approximately 9.2 million Americans who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.

As U.S. senior citizens age, it is common for them to eventually move from a private home to an assisted living facility or nursing home, where they can be better cared for as their independence gradually declines.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2004 National Nursing Home Survey, 1.5 million Americans resided in one of the country's 16,100 nursing homes. The occupancy rate of U.S. nursing homes is 86 percent, with the average length of time since resident admission estimated at 835 days.

While Medicare covers hospital visits and general health coverage for the elderly, the program does not usually pay for care in nursing homes. According to the U.S. Medicare website, under limited conditions, Medicare will cover nursing home stays after a hospital stay of at least three days, and often with the nursing home residency only for short-term and rehabilitative purposes.

Instead, about half of nursing home residents pay for long-term care through their own personal savings. The cost of long-term nursing home care is substantial, with the U.S. median rate for a semi-private room pegged at 67,525 U.S. dollars per year, according to the Genworth 2010 Cost of Care survey.

The amount of money and demand for nursing homes and assisted living care has led to the creation of for-profit and non-profit facilities, with each varying in the cost and types of care offered. Both facilities can receive reimbursement from the U.S. government for any Medicare and Medicaid patients receiving care there.

At Chicago's Norwood Crossing, a non-profit assisted living center and nursing home, Marketing Director Peter Lim told Xinhua that about 70 percent of Norwood Crossing patients pay for facility care with personal funds, with the remaining 30 percent covered through Medicaid.

However, Lim said the Medicaid reimbursement often did not completely cover the true cost of care for many nursing home residents, and the Norwood Crossing has to set aside about one third of funds to cover the bills of the need-based Medicaid patients.

"No one has a crystal ball and can tell how long someone is going to live for, so as long as the individual who has applied has been approved (by Norwood Crossing), even after their assets have worn out we still take care of them," Lim said.

Lim said in the United States there were nursing homes that were funded entirely through private pay, facilities that were 100 percent need-based Medicaid, and ones like Norwood Crossing that were somewhere in between.

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