Congress' inability to reach a budget deal will have multiple impacts across the nation's economy. One aspect will hit health care.
Cynthia Wilson is an elder care advocate and author of "Who Will Take Care of Mom: A Guide For Family Managed Senior Care." She sees the possible effect on how health care is delivered to seniors.
"Many of them already feel they are not being reimbursed for cost of care treatment as it stands, Wilson said. "That could obviously affect their operations and may cause some to at least not want to take on more Medicare patients."
One proposed way to avoid reimbursement reductions, raising the minimum age to receive Medicare from 65 to 67.
Wilson says it will be difficult for people at the age to receive medicare from 65 to 67 and an AARP counselor says that the move would only create a new problem.
"If they do that they are taking two of the probably healthiest and youngest ages out of the Medicare program and so when you take a healthy person out of a health program you are going to increase the premiums," counselor Gerald Schmitt said.
According to the AARP-an average increase of $2,200 a year per person. And that would put a strain on the more than 366 thousand Kansans who rely on Medicare, many of whom rely heavily upon social security.
