Medicare is one of the insurance options, which is aimed at providing the long-term care for the elderly to ensure the availability of the medical support for the people in need (Leawitt, 2009). Meanwhile, the variability of the healthcare plans creates difficulties in decision-making, and it is critical to assess all the options while making a decision due to the ability to save the financial resources.
In this case, the primary goal of the paper is to provide a description of the healthcare plans, select the most appropriate one, and offer a rationale for the choice. In the end, the reflection of the overall process is presented while determining the primary difficulties related to the understanding of the dissimilarities between the plans.
Description of the Plans
Firstly, Medicare plans have to be described, as they have differences depending on the provided services and coverage. In this case, it is critical to analyze the options available in the specific state, as the offerings might vary depending on the geographical location. Medicare part A tends to focus on providing the services and enabling the hospital stay with the skilled assistance in a well-equipped medical facility (What’s Medicare?, 2016).
In turn, part B aims at ensuring the medical insurance while offering doctor’s and preventive services (What’s Medicare?, 2016). A combination of these plans covers the basic healthcare services while the majority of the medical assistance is excluded. For instance, long-term and dental care are not considered as parts of these options (What’s not covered, 2016). In this case, the original Medicare package combines A and B parts and requires $104 in monthly premium (Your plan results, 2016).
In turn, there is a vast variety of options with the higher ranking while offering similar possibilities for healthcare coverage, as the availability of the medication is not critical for everyone equally (Your plan results, 2016).
In turn, plan C implies the coverage of the medical needs of the customer while providing an extended variety of options (What’s Medicare?, 2016). This possibility gives an opportunity to monitor finances and contributes to the selection of the best options only. Meanwhile, it is vital to highlight that some plans have a tendency to provide prescribed drugs’ coverage (What’s Medicare?, 2016). It could be said that this plan is beneficial for the individuals, who have to take medication regularly to avoid worsening of their diseases and illnesses.
As for plan D, it adds prescription drug treatment to the original plans including A and B (What’s Medicare?, 2016). In this case, it is regarded a supplement to the original Medicare plan and could be considered as being appropriate for the individuals with the chronical illnesses, as it ensures the constant availability of the medication. There is a vast variety of companies such as UnitedHealthcare and Humana Insurance Company, which tend to offer the drug prescription (Your plan results, 2016). The monthly premium is from $20 to $45 (Your plan results, 2016).
In this case, the decision related to the selection of the particular plan is dependent on the personal needs and overall physical condition. Understanding the required elements will help determine a relevant plan option. Otherwise, purchasing extras will not be beneficial from the financial perspective. In the end, a combination of these factors can be considered as a priority for the decision-making.
Rationale for the Choice
Despite the clarity of the described offers, the decision-making was difficult due to the necessity to consider various matters and changes in the recent future. In this case, based on the information provided above, I am interested in choosing original Medicare plan, as it tends to cover the basic needs of the patient (What’s Medicare?, 2016). There are several reasons for the selection of this option, and these matters are related to my healthcare condition and the options presented in the insurance market.
Firstly, it could be said I do not have any serious issues with my health, as I focus on the maintenance of my physical condition while eliminating the possibility for the illness development. Meanwhile, I try to pursue a healthy lifestyle by doing exercises, playing sports with my grandchildren, and focusing on fresh products including fruits and vegetables in my diet. Furthermore, I do not have bad habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption.
It is apparent that a combination of these aspects contributes to the understanding of my choice, as my physical condition allows me to choose part A and B only due to the lack of need for the supplemental services. In this case, the preferred plan tends to cover all the risk possibilities and helps me monitor the changes in my health on the regular basis.
Nonetheless, the potential alterations in health have to be taken into account, as the elderly are more vulnerable to the illnesses than the younger part of the population (Midlov, Erikson, & Kragh, 2009). Meanwhile, the aspects such as dehydration and malnutrition affect the functioning of the organism while causing the necessity to control the health condition regularly (Midlov, Erikson, & Kragh, 2009).
Based on the information provided above, it is apparent that it is vital to project the potential changes in health to ensure the medical assistance in case of emergency. As it was mentioned earlier, my physical condition contributes to the selection of the original Medicare package, as any worsening of my condition will be covered by this option.
As for the part D of the plan, I will consider adding this element in the near future due to the potential necessity to take medication and increased defenselessness of the organism (Midlov, Erikson, & Kragh, 2009). Nonetheless, this matter can be viewed as a supplemental insurance and can be applied when required. In the end, it is apparent that the overall decision-making was based on the evaluation of my physical condition and the potential provision of the negative changes in my health. A combination of these factors contributed to the understanding that Medicare plan A and B are the most appropriate insurance plans for my health since they have a tendency to comply with my current physical condition.
Reflection
The primary goal of this section is to provide the reflection of the overall process of the assignment’s completion, as it will contribute to the understanding of easy and difficult matters. Firstly, it was not difficult to find the information about the plans to acquire a general understanding of the topic while depicting the dissimilarities between the options. It is apparent that Medicaid website offers profound information about the topic and portrays it from different angles.
Meanwhile, the research on the potential changes in the elderly’s physical condition and increasing vulnerability was easy, and this aspect contributed to the potential changes in the plan in future. It could be said that it was not difficult to determine the factors, which will influence my decision-making process as I have a clear image of my current physical condition while being able to provision changes in future.
Despite the availability of the information, some difficulties were present and associated with the understanding of the benefits of the plans and reliability of the insurance companies. The ranking and evaluation process was time-consuming and required analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each option to determine the appropriateness of my physical condition. Based on the factors provided above, it is evident that these elements were difficult and critical to the overall problem-solving due to the necessity to determine these matters while selecting a plan.
As for the lessons, it is apparent that every person has to monitor his/her condition on the regular basis, as the awareness of the potential health problems will assist in the selection of the most relevant healthcare plan. This matter will ease the overall decision-making process while depicting the most critical issues, which require coverage. In turn, the analysis of the selection and evaluation of the difficulties could contribute to the improvement of the Medicare website’s interface due to the necessity to provide an opportunity to select a suitable healthcare plan. In this case, the website can be reorganized, or online support could be offered to navigate an individual through the decision-making process.
In the end, it could be said that Medicare should conduct a sufficient research related to the availability of the website while determining the areas, which require improvement to enhance the user’s experience.
References
Leawitt, M. (2009). Medicare and you. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Midlov, P., Erikson, T., & Kragh, A. (2009). Drug related problems in the elderly. New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media.
What’s Medicare? (2016). Web.
What’s not covered by part A and part B? (2016). Web.
Your plan results. (2016). Web.