Medicare: A Critical Element Of Health Care Reform

A panel of senior advocates and health policy experts gathered on Capitol Hill to discuss current efforts to reform our national health care system and a growing consensus that Medicare should play a role in that debate.

"We know there will be savings found in Medicare to help pay for system-wide health care reform. But we must also ensure that some of those savings are reinvested back into the program to improve the care of millions of senior Americans."...Barbara B. Kennelly, President/CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

"Medicare should be the model"... Marilyn Moon, Ph.D. Vice-President and Director of the Health Program, American Institutes for Research

Today's Medicare panel discussion, hosted by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the Alliance for Retired Americans, focused on several Medicare and health care reform issues; including, Medicare Advantage overpayments, cost containment proposals, Low Income and Part D improvements.

"Medicare beneficiaries frequently don't choose the plan that is the lowest cost because Part D is too complicated to analyze. We need to simplify Part D because it's just too difficult to make educated choices"... Vicki Gottlich, Senior Policy Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy

Dr. Brian Biles, Professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services, detailed a variety of strategies to trim or eliminate an estimated $150 billion dollars in Medicare Advantage overpayments going to private insurers over the next decade. Among the improvements those savings could help fund include: limits on out-of-pocket costs, stronger policies on marketing and advertising, limits on the number of private plans and additional data to support better risk adjustment of payments.

As the nation's largest purchaser of health services, it is inevitable that policymakers will look to Medicare - both as a model and as a tool for system wide health care reform. Reforming health care is vital to our nation's long- term economic health and today's panelists say improving Medicare is critical to that health care reform effort. Video clips and power point slides from today's panel discussion will be posted online by May 22nd at http://www.ncpssm.org. The National Committee's latest video "Medicare = Health Care" can also be found on our YouTube channel.