Improving Medicare While Holding Down Costs
November 15, 2010 |
8:19 a.m.
CMS Administrator Donald Berwick goes in front of the Senate Finance Committee this week to discuss ways to improve Medicare and Medicaid. It is a topic that becomes even timelier in the wake of the recently released recommendations made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Between the new health care law, with its provisions geared towards refining payments, and the commission's calls to set spending targets over the next two decades, what do you think holds the most promise in terms of improving the quality of care in Medicare while also holding down costs?
November 18, 2010 3:47 PM
Wrong Way to Reform Medicare
By John C. Goodman
President and CEO, National Center for Policy Analysis, and Kellye Wright Fellow
As the Medicare actuaries have reported, the Accountable Care Act’s scheduled cuts in Medicare fees to doctors and hospitals will seriously undermine access to care. By the end of this decade Medicare will pay less than Medicaid. Seniors will line up behind low-income families at community health centers and safety net hospitals as they are closed out of the market for private physician services.
A better way to control costs is outlined in my paper, A Framework for Medicare Reform. Providers would be free to renegotiate the way they are paid, provided the cost to taxpayers is reduced and quality of care is improved.