Medicare Reform and Prescription Drugs
ISSUE SUMMARIES
Issue summaries provide a quick reference to Centrists.Org general principles and most important links, within each topic area.
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Detailed Issue Summary: Medicare Reform and Prescription Drugs (General)
Sub-Categories:
Medicare Reform
Prescription Drug Benefits in Medicare
Integrated Drug Benefit as part of Medicare Reform
Stand-Alone Drug Benefit, with Separate Premium
Zero-Premium Catastrophic-Only Drug Benefit
Detailed Issue Summary: Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
AARP “Victory” In Court Would Reduce Retiree Health Benefits
03.30.2005 || Yesterday's decision by the U.S. District Court striking down regulations exempting an employer’s coordination of retiree health benefits with eligibility for Medicare or state-sponsored retiree health benefits from the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) represents a victory of ideology over common sense and will likely result in a reduction in retiree health benefits.
Improving the Medicare Drug Discount Cards
06.22.2004 || With a few technical fixes and one big attitude adjustment, the Medicare discount cards will be a successful new model of a public-private partnership.
Democratic Leaders Should Embrace the Drug Discount Cards (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
06.02.2004 || The Medicare drug cards do no harm, might actually help quite a few people, and offer a significant benefit to low-income seniors.
Detailed Issue Summary: Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
05.15.2004 || This new Issue Summary contains a detailed description and preliminary evaluation of the Medicare drug bill.
Private Health Plans in Medicare -- Cost Trends and Ideological Battles
04.21.2004 || This report attempts to put the debate over Medicare's private plans into perspective, using new calculations of spending trends and a characterization of the political forces battling over the prospect of direct public-private competition in Medicare.
Conservative Health Scholars Urge "Fix" to Drug Benefit, Building on Discount Cards
03.26.2004 || The conservative Heritage Foundation and Galen Institute separately published new reports yesterday arguing that the Medicare drug discount card program should be made permanent, with the addition of a catastrophic drug benefit.
A First Look at the New Medicare Trustees Report
preliminary 03.23.2004 || The drug benefit will substantially increase the overall cost of the program. But the drug law didn't contribute much to the fact that Medicare's Part A Trust fund is now estimated to be depleted in 2019, seven years earlier than the previous estimate.
CBO vs. The Bush Administration on Medicare -- A Difference of Opinion, Not a "Raised" Estimate
03.23.2004 || The Administration's long-suppressed cost estimate of the Medicare drug bill is higher than the original Congressional estimate. The delay caused people to assume the estimates have been revised upward. However, that is not true.
The Administration Finally Releases Some Medicare Drug Estimates (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
03.22.2004 || The real scandal of last year's Medicare bill was the official reluctance -- from both the Congressional leadership and the White House -- to share analytic material with the public.
The Curious, Counter-Intuitive Relationship Between Medicare Costs and HMO Enrollment
02.08.2004 || In a weird way, Congress set the stage for future savings when it raised payments to Medicare HMOs in last year's Rx drug bill.
Medicare Follow-Up? (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
01.04.2004 || Congress should start smoothing over the Medicare Rx bill's rougher edges, even if it means spending more.
Explaining Premium Support: How Medicare Reform Could Work
revised 11.06.2003 || The premium support concept is both loved and vilified, but it is not very well understood. This report outlines the structure of a national (federal employees-style) premium support system in Medicare. It includes the basic rationale for premium support and a step-by-step example of how premiums would be calculated.
Testimony: Improving Chronic Care in Medicare
11.04.2003 || Statement for Senate Special Committee on Aging's Forum on Disease Management in Medicare.
Suggestions for Income Testing in Social Insurance Programs
10.27.2003 || On reflection, the debate over income testing in Medicare is larger than the prescription drug bill in Congress -- it raises fundamental questions about how Americans want social insurance programs to work.
Drug Benefits and the Emperor's Clothes (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
10.25.2003 || On the surface, the biggest Medicare dispute isn't about drug benefits, it's about "premium support." But the underlying problem is not competition -- it is the drug benefit itself.
New Chart: Conference Drug Benefit
10.23.2003 || The proposed Medicare drug benefit could suffer adverse selection and an upward spiral in premiums unless seniors were compelled to enroll by other means.
Rx Plan "A" is Alive and Twitching (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
10.15.2003 || Something had to give. The Medicare drug benefit being prepared for final passage in Congress is over-promised. So what is the solution? Tax cuts. No joke.
Economic Perspective: When Are Health Costs Excessive if $15,000 is Average?
10.01.2003 || In a Sept. 29 commentary in Tax Notes, economist Gene Steuerle fantasizes about a rational Medicare reform and prescription drug debate.
From The Hill, October 1, 2003 (www.thehill.com)
A Better Drug Benefit
"The Medicare drug benefit pending in Congress is flawed. The design was a rare political compromise; however, the result is a tortured policy that may be unworkable in practice."
New Medicare and Rx Drug Resources (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
09.25.2003 || Includes side-by-side analyses from the Congressional Research Service, and text of low-income/catastrophic drug proposals.
Passing the Feasibility Test: A Low-Income and Catastrophic Medicare Drug Benefit
09.24.2003 || With the Medicare conferees running low on time, a simpler drug benefit based on discount cards might be an acceptable solution.
An Exit Strategy for the Medicare Conferees (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
09.11.2003 || A zero-premium "catastrophic" benefit for seniors with the highest drug expenses (and additional benefits for seniors with low incomes) could help avoid an impasse on the Medicare drug bills pending in Congress.
Rural Health Care: Rights and Responsibilities
revised 08.25.2003 || To qualify for new subsidies included in the Medicare Rx bills, rural health providers should be required to sign up with PPO plans in Medicare.
New Charts: What Seniors Would Pay for the Standard Drug Benefit in the Medicare Bills
08.20.2003 || Seniors would face a tough choice under the House and Senate drug proposals.
A Reminder: Chronic Care Should Be The Focus of Medicare Reform
08.08.2003 || Yesterday's Washington Post Column by Eric DeJonge and Bruce Leff points out the importance of reforming Medicare for improved chronic care.
"Dynamic Scoring" in Health Care
08.07.2003 || The extra analysis within "dynamic" or long-term estimates of tax cut proposals was helpful to Congress. Now, CBO should try to point out the long-term or other analytic considerations of the Medicare bills recently passed in the House and Senate.
Lessons from the New CBO Medicare Estimates
07.28.2003 || 10 new insights and questions stemming from CBO's recently completed estimates of the House- and Senate-passed Medicare and prescription drug bills.
Helpful Chronic Care Initiatives in the Medicare Bills
07.22.2003 || Some praiseworthy new proposals to improve chronic care are buried deep within the House and Senate Medicare bills.
Medicare Needs FEHB-Style "High Option" Health Plans (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
07.14.2003 || Federal employees have better health benefits than those offered in Medicare. But they also pay a much higher share of the cost, and their premium could go up further if they choose costlier-than-average plans.
Medicare's Fee-For-Service "Savings" Are Really Costs
revised 07.28.2003 || The House and Senate Medicare drug bills contain illusory, distant-year cuts in payments to health providers that are never intended to materialize.
2003 Medicare and Drug Resource Page
CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
07.13.2003 || Extensive links to think tank research and commentary on the current Medicare debate.
From Roll Call, July 7, 2003 (www.rollcall.com)
On Medicare and Budget Numbers, CBO is Failing
"Congress is poised to enact a Medicare drug benefit based on bad information. The Congressional Budget Office has failed its duty to provide lawmakers with a thorough and balanced analysis..."
Drug Benefit Costs 1 Percent of GDP in 2030 (If CBO is Right)
06.25.2003 || Centrists.Org projects that the drug benefit being considered by Congress will raise Medicare spending from 5.6 percent of GDP to 6.6 percent in 2030, based on an extension of CBO's estimate of S.1 .
Medicare vs. FEHB Spending: A Rare, Reasonable Analysis
06.23.2003 || A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee staff provides the most balanced data so far in this weird and mostly unproductive debate.
CBO's Blurry Medicare Estimates
(CentristPolicyNetwork.Org) 06.20.03 || CBO should be held responsible for its inadequate estimates of Medicare proposals, including the latest compromise in Congress.
Will the Senate's Medicare PPO Program Work?
06.11.2003 || The main element of reform in the Senate Medicare proposal, the new Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) program, could fail to get off the ground because of arcane "scoring" or cost-estimating contortions.
The Pointless Debate Over "Efficiency" of Government-Run vs. Private Health Insurance
05.12.2003 || According to PPI, it's like debating McDonald's vs. Burger King.
The President's Medicare Framework: Good Ideas, Bad Rhetoric
04.20.2003 || Although its pro-HMO rhetoric was weird, the President's Medicare framework is a constructive step on the path to a new and better Medicare.
