Deck 11: Public Health Policy and Aging

Question 1

What is the main argument against the junk-food tax?

A) Junk food is delicious and should not be taxed.
B) Your body is your temple.
C) Government should not pry into people's personal business.

Answer 1

C
One way to create a budget for health promotion for both the young and old is to craft federal legislation that mandates a small junk food tax-candy bars, cookies, cakes, pastries, ice cream, soda, corn chips, tortilla chips, and potato chips. Tax high-fat, high-sugar, or high-salt junk foods, which constitute over 20% of Americans' calories. The main argument against junk food taxes is that the government should not pry into people's personal business.

Question 2

What percent of all healthcare spending is now government spending in the United States?

A) 20%
B) 30%
C) 50%
D) 70%

Answer 2

C
We have reached a point where more than 50% of all the healthcare spending is now government spending in the United States. If we cannot control these taxpayer-supported costs, it will crowd out funds for infrastructure maintenance, such as repair of roads and bridges. It will crowd out support for public school education. It will crowd out funds for public safety. It will crowd out funds for medical research.

Question 3

Evaluate the future of Social Security.
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Answer 3

Social Security is indisputably one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever created, with longevity at 85 years in 2020. Moreover, without access to Social Security, 58% of women and 48% of men above the age of 75 would be living below the poverty line. According to a 2014 report on poverty released by the Census Bureau, 23.4 million Americans were kept above the poverty line through Social Security benefits. The future of Social Security depends on its solvency. The good news is that compared to Medicare, fixing Social Security is a walk in the park. Yes, the percentage of people over age 65 has grown, from 6% of the population in 1935 to 15% today. And, yes, the number of Social Security beneficiaries is expected to rise from 57 million in 2012 to 90 million in 2033. And yes, once again, the number of workers contributing to Social Security has decreased, from approximately four workers per beneficiary in the 1960s, to 2.9 workers in 2012, and the number of contributing workers is expected to decline further, to 2.1 workers in 2036. Here are five ways, with the last one alone solving somewhere around 80% of the problem, though this percentage declines with each year we procrastinate: (1) raise the retirement age; (2) reduce the amount of money Social Security pays out to the highest earners; (3) change the cost-of-living adjustment formula; (4) increase the payroll tax rate for Social Security; and (5) remove the payroll tax cap from Social Security ($132,900 in 2019)-the simplest, easiest, and most politically palatable component.

Question 4

Examine the importance of comparative effectiveness.
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Question 5

For Medicare beneficiaries, normal-weight persons averaged $4,700 a year in medical costs, whereas obese persons averaged ______.

A) $4,700
B) $5,200
C) $5,800
D) $6,400

Question 6

Which of the following are gaps in healthcare coverage that are leading to personal bankruptcies?

A) Gaps in Medicare coverage (e.g., long-term care, hearing and vision care, dental care, etc.)
B) High premiums
C) Substantial co-payments
D) All of the above

Question 7

Which of the following statements is true about medical rationing?

A) The United States is the only country that rations medical care.
B) Medical outcomes are the same even if services are rationed or non-rationed.
C) Rationing does not mean that you cannot acquire the medical care that you want regardless of cost, if you can afford to pay for it on your own.
D) When it comes to paying for huge amounts of care for small amounts of benefit, surveys of Americans consistently demonstrate disapproval.

Question 8

What proportion of Medicare expenditures are spent during the last year of life?

A) 3/4
B) 1/2
C) 1/4
D) 1/16

Question 9

Competition does what to the healthcare market?

A) Drives cost up
B) Improves the quality of care
C) Drives cost down
D) Improves life expectancy

Question 10

Which of the following is the definition of pay-for-delay?

A) Drug companies must test the safety of new pills before disseminating.
B) Construction companies are paid to delay building new hospitals.
C) Drug companies producing brand-name medicines are able to pay generic drug makers to delay the marketing of less-expensive generic products.
D) It provides hospitals payment for delaying medical procedures to see if people get better.

Question 11

Which of the following statements about geriatric research is true?

A) There is a need for trained geriatric providers.
B) There is a need for increased funding for geriatric research to evaluate the effectiveness of preventing, postponing, or treating geriatric syndromes.
C) Research has created many opportunities for health-promoting counseling and other behavior-changing strategies for older adults.
D) Through research, older adults have become effective public health advocates, particularly in the areas of environmental protection and strengthening elementary school education.

Question 12

Critically evaluate the need for a single-payer managed healthcare system.
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Question 13

What type of discrimination at work has the lowest success rate-14%-when it comes to charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission?

A) Gender
B) Age
C) Race
D) Religion

Question 14

What is not an example of a single-payer system?

A) Medicaid
B) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
C) Kaiser Permanente
D) Ministry of Health in France

Question 15

The total outstanding older adult student loan debt in 2013 was ______.

A) $11 million
B) $1 billion
C) $3 billion
D) $18 billion