The United States government is trying to find a way to take control of rising health care costs and the crisis that is leaving many citizens uninsured or underinsured.  A large portion of these are senior citizens – the one group who may need healthcare services more than any other demographic.

With prescription drug costs spiraling out of control, many seniors are finding their health care coverage doesn’t stack up against the bills they incur.  The bill working its way through Congress intends to address that concern – offering $400 billion to Medicare in an effort to cover prescription costs.

With an aging baby boomer population, those costs are expected to continue rising, and the Medicare program will undoubtedly fall short of being able to foot the bill.  One portion of the bill seeks to relieve Medicare from its overwhelming responsibility. 

Lawmakers hope that Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) will ease the burden on Medicare programs and allow senior citizens to have better access to managed care programs.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) originally tried to stem the rapid growth of health care spending, but consumers balked at the restrictions placed on them from the program and many switched to PPOs whenever possible simply to have the flexibility they were seeking.