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Publications on Medicare

Viewing 1-5 of 156. Most recent posts listed first.Next Page >>

First Tuesday: Is There a Fair Way to Cap the Tax Exclusion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance? (Audio Podcasts / First Tuesdays)
The Urban Institute

Health reform - the "let’s do lunch" of public policy - is on everyone's lips in Washington. But like many long-postponed, obligatory meals, who is going to pick up the check? Capping the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) - an idea loved and loathed by politicians from both parties - is on the table to pay for subsidies for the uninsured and to moderate companies’ incentives to offer high-end coverage.

Posted to Web: June 02, 2009Publication Date: June 02, 2009

What about long-term care? (Opinion)
Howard Gleckman

More than 250 million Americans-more than 80 percent of us- have health coverage, usually through employers or Medicare, Howard Gleckman points out in a USA Today commentary. By contrast, just 7 million have long-term care insurance. That, it seems, is the real crisis of the uninsured.

Posted to Web: May 26, 2009Publication Date: May 26, 2009

Health Reform in the 21st Century: Reforming the Health Care Delivery System: Before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means (Testimony)
Robert A. Berenson

Medicare and other insurers generally ignore the importance of established chronic illnesses in generating demands on the health care system and escalating costs, Institute Fellow Robert Berenson told the House Ways and Means Committee. At the same time, delivery system reforms are likely to fail unless immediate steps are taken to address the likely collapse of the primary care physician workforce in many parts of the country. He also underscored the need for a public plan -- patterned on Medicare but separate from it -- as an option for those seeking care.

Posted to Web: April 01, 2009Publication Date: April 01, 2009

Burden of Care: Swelling numbers make Medicaid, Medicare ripe for reform (Commentary)
John Holahan

In this Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California) commentary, John Holahan explains that Medicaid has done a good job of keeping costs under control and that its increase in spending is caused by the swelling number of enrollees, particularly in a weak economy. The 7 million people eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare are not dealt with in a cost-effective way, though, and transferring responsibility for them to the federal government would pave the way for health reform.

Posted to Web: February 17, 2009Publication Date: December 16, 2008

Aligning Incentives: The Case for Delivery System Reform: Testimony Before The United States Senate Committee on Finance (Testimony)
Robert A. Berenson

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Robert Berenson, M.D. explores possible reasons that integrated care organizations that include multispecialty group practices have not become a major feature of the U.S. health system despite prominent success stories. These organizations are often penalized financially for undertaking activities that reduce costs because the benefits of efficiency are not internalized to the organization. Berenson makes the case that current payment incentives embedded in Medicare and private payer approaches promote behavior that may not benefit patients, such as rewarding preventable hospitalizations and producing a mismatch between the services patients need and those that fee schedules encourage.

Posted to Web: September 16, 2008Publication Date: September 16, 2008

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