With 11,000 baby boomers becoming eligible for Medicare every day, according to government projections, the number of people who can afford to access doctors and hospitals is rising significantly, adding more pressure to an already-strained health-care system.

For some 65 year olds, Medicare is their only insurance source; for others it will improve and supplement their access and coverage.

Patient advocate Ruth Fenner Barash says new and improved health care coverage is always a good thing, but warns that the U.S. health-care system is not always the benevolent safety net many people believe it to be, especially for people dealing with problems associated with aging.

"Patients and their loved ones cannot blindly turn themselves over to this massive, technology based system and trust that it will care or take care of them," says Barash, who wrote For Better or Worse: Lurching from Crisis to Crisis in Americas Medical Morass (http://forbetterorworsebook.com).

Her book chronicles the long medical journey her husband, Philip, endured with her as his advocate. On the tail, she discovered mismanagement and excess, useless interventions and a sometimes complete disregard for pain even when there was no hope of healing.

"I learned a great deal from our experience, and I want others to benefit from what Ive learned," she says.

Barash offers the following tips for boomers and their loved ones, to deal with medical problems:

Tip No.1: Avoid the Emergency Room if You Can

Barash says her experience proved emergency rooms were developed with the idea that few people would use them; most people would see their physician. But as health-care costs rose, ERs became a primary-care facility for the uninsured or those looking to pay for services out of pocket.

She points out that ERs were not created for patients to spend a lot of time in, presumably, they would be seen quickly and be either admitted to the hospital or treated and released.

Excerpt from:

Health-Care Tips Every Boomer Needs to Know