June 18, 2008
Medicare: Congress Is Poised to Block Competitive Bidding for Medical Supplies
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1959)
Members of Congress, under pressure from industry lobbyists, are poised to block competitive bidding for durable medical equipment and supplies in the Medicare program.
June 13, 2008
The Success of Medicare Advantage Plans: What Seniors Should Know
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2142)
Medicare Advantage is a success and can serve as the first stage of reform, but Congress will have to change the existing payment system and ...
March 26, 2008
Congress Must Not Ignore the Medicare Trustees' Warning
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1869)
Congress should take steps to transform Medicare from a costly open-ended entitlement program to a defined-contribution program.
March 25, 2008
Medicare and Social Security: The Challenge of Giant Entitlement Costs
By David C. John and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1867)
Today's report affirms the need for Congress to begin a serious overhaul of both of these vital programs.
March 6, 2008
Medicare Advantage: The Case for Protecting Patient Choice
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1836)
The President should veto any legislation that undercuts either consumer choice or competition in Medicare Advantage.
February 19, 2008
Rethinking Social Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler and Maya MacGuineas
(White Paper )
The single greatest threat to the fiscal health of the United States is the runaway growth of the nation's major retirement and health care entitlement ...
February 11, 2008
Make Medicare Budget Options Compatible with Comprehensive Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1807)
In response to the trigger in Medicare law, Congress should move the program toward a new system based on free market principles.
February 5, 2008
The President's Medicare Budget: A First Step Toward Entitlement Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1797)
It Members of Congress do not agree with the President's proposals, they should develop reasonable alternatives of their own.
February 4, 2008
Congress Must Pull the Trigger to Contain Medicare Spending
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Alison Acosta Fraser
(WebMemo #1796)
A trigger in Medicare law presents Congress with an opportunity to reform entitlements.
December 13, 2007
How Congress Is Killing Competition: The Future of Specialty Hospitals
By Ashok Roy, M.D.
(WebMemo #1740)
Congress should refrain from imposing statutory or regulatory restrictions on specialty hospitals.
December 11, 2007
Medicare Reform: Cleaning Up the Physician Payment Mess
By John O'Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #1730)
To improve quality and lower costs, Congress should replace administrative pricing with a system driven by consumer choice and competition.
May 3, 2007
The 2007 Medicare Trustees Report: A Trigger for Reform?
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1442)
Congress should heed the trustees' funding warning and adopt the Medicare reforms in the President's most recent budget proposal.
February 6, 2007
The President's Medicare Budget Proposal: A Step Forward on Entitlement Spending
By Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #1344)
In his FY 2008 budget, the President has proposed a set of serious Medicare proposals that will begin to address the enormous fiscal challenge of ...
January 11, 2007
Hearing on Prescription Drug Pricing and Negotiation for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Testimony )
Hearing on Prescription Drug Pricing and Negotiation for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
May 1, 2006
Medicare and Social Security: Big Entitlement Costs on the Horizon
By David C. John and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1054)
Social Security and Medicare have promised $37 trillion more in benefits to senior and disabled workers than the programs will be able to pay.
February 8, 2006
The President's Modest Medicare Budget Proposal
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #993)
With Medicare costs set to explode, the President proposes minor savings.
November 10, 2005
The Senate Reconciliation Bill: Wrapping Doctors in More Medicare Red Tape
By Richard Dolinar, M.D.
(WebMemo #912)
Congress is poised to entangle Medicare doctors in even more bureaucratic red tape. In its version of the budget reconciliation bill, the Senate voted to ...
November 3, 2005
The Senate Medicare Options: Serious Savings or Business as Usual?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #911)
Two proposals: one is innovative and bold, one less so.
October 11, 2005
The Economic and Fiscal Effects of Financing Medicare's Unfunded Liabilities
By Tracy L. Foertsch, Ph.D., and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #05-06)
Simply raising taxes to finance promised Medicare benefits would likely prove counterproductive because the economic costs would be prohibitive, even if policymakers use new tax ...
October 11, 2005
Paying for Medicare: An Economic Look at the Program's Unfunded Liabilities
By Tracy L. Foertsch, Ph.D., and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #880)
The economic costs of funding Medicare with higher taxes are, to say the least, prohibitive.
October 5, 2005
Pay for Performance or Compliance? A Second Opinion on Medicare Reimbursement
By Richard Dolinar, M.D., and S. Luke Leininger
(Backgrounder #1882)
Congress should revisit Medicare reimbursement within the context of comprehensive Medicare reform, transforming Medicare into a system of "premium support" that resembles the Federal Employees ...
September 22, 2005
Paying for Katrina Relief: Cancel or Delay the Medicare Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #857)
Delaying the drug benefit would save tens of billions of dollars that could be put to better use in Katrina recovery.
July 1, 2005
Doing Your Own Health Care Thing: American Seniors vs. Canadian Citizens
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #783)
A new decision frees Quebecois to purchase medical care; will U.S. seniors be next?
June 14, 2005
High Anxiety: Implementing the Medicare Prescription Drug Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1860)
Congress has launched the largest entitlement expansion since the Great Society, accompanied by an equally massive new experiment in central planning. Rather than reflect current ...
April 28, 2005
Medicare Drug Cost Estimates: What Congress Knows Now
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1849)
The financial burdens of the expanded Medicare drug entitlement impose an enormous burden on current and future taxpayers. Congress can act by targeting drug subsidies ...
March 3, 2005
Weird Science: Projecting the Effects of Medicare's Odd Drug Benefit Design
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #674)
Millions of seniors are in for a surprise. And so are their representatives on Congress.
February 10, 2005
Time To Revisit the Costly Medicare Drug Entitlement
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #661)
The drug entitlement was a costly mistake that needs to be repealed or drastically revamped
January 4, 2005
Early Warning on Medicare Drug Implementation
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #631)
Congress still has time--barely--to fix this mess.
December 17, 2004
Will Congress Contain Medicare's Exploding Costs?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Jeff Lemieux, and Daniel L. Crippen, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #857)
To develop true Medicare reform, the Administration and Congress needs a clearer set of illness-specific, beneficiary-level data-particularly for the oldest and sickest Medicare patients. This ...
September 14, 2004
Lessons of Success: What Congress Can Learn from the Federal Employees Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #565)
FEHBP's market principles account for its record of success and its popularity as a model for reform.
July 30, 2004
The Medicare Drug Discount Card: First Phase of a Market Revolution?
By Grace-Marie Turner and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #846)
The Medicare prescription drug discount card introduces incentives for consumer choice and genuine price competition into the Medicare program. The program is designed to help ...
July 15, 2004
The Medicare Discount Drug Cards: One Month In
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #538)
A month since its commencement, the Medicare Discount Drug Card program is already showing significant promise in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors.
June 18, 2004
Bitter Pills #11: If It Might Succeed, Kill It
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
President Reagan once said government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: "If it moves, tax it. If it ...
June 18, 2004
Can Congress Contain Explosive Medicare Costs?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #523)
Can Congress contain these costs and reduce the burden of debt that's now on future generations' shoulders? If so, how?
May 28, 2004
The Truth About the Medicare Drug Discount Card
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1766)
The Medicare Discount Drug Card introduces transparency to drug prices while empowering consumers with the freedom to choose the options that are best for them. ...
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #1: An Agenda for Constructive Change
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1750)
Whatever merits one may ascribe to the recently enacted Medicare law, it has aggravated, not controlled, rapidly rising Medicare costs. Its major feature is a ...
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #2: How to Promote Real Medicare Cost Containment
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1751)
Instead of working on new and more complicated ways to set thousands of prices, Medicare should adopt a premium support framework modeled after the Federal ...
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #3: How to Build on the Drug Discount Card
By Grace-Marie Turner and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1752)
Congress has provided a good start on a properly structured drug benefit through its transitional drug card program with funding for certain low-income beneficiaries. If ...
April 1, 2004
How the Drug Entitlement Drives Different Medicare Cost Estimates
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #464)
Why the discrepancy in cost estimates of the Medicare bill? The chief culprit is the drug benefit, which accounts for about $100 billion of the ...
March 31, 2004
Medicare: A Ticking Time Bomb for Tax Increases
By Daniel J. Mitchell
(WebMemo #462)
Unless the mistake of the Medicare drug benefit is fixed, burgeoning entitlement spending will create enormous pressure for higher taxes.
March 25, 2004
Medicare's Deepening Financial Crisis: The High Price of Fiscal Irresponsibility
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #1740)
By delaying implementation of the Medicare drug entitlement while making the prescription drug discount a permanent feature of Medicare, including the Medicare Advantage system that ...
December 15, 2003
The Cost of Medicare: What the Future Holds
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Jeff Lemieux
(Heritage Lecture #815)
Despite media reports of a landmark reform, the new Medicare law seems to be just business as usual. It will take a long time to ...
November 21, 2003
Medicare Malady #88: How Fast Can You Read the Medicare Drug Bill?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Is there a speed-reader in the House? How about the Senate?
November 19, 2003
A "Demonstration Project" Equals No Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1708)
The latest congressional leadership proposal for a "demonstration project" to test Medicare reform continues a tiresome pattern of bad federal health policy that undercuts the ...
November 17, 2003
Time to Rethink the Disastrous Medicare Legislation
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #370)
The Medicare conference agreement fails the two critical requirements of a responsible drug benefit program for the nation's seniors. The original idea underlying this legislation ...
November 14, 2003
State-By-State Tax Increase from Medicare Drug Benefit
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #367)
Taxpayers would see a $41 billion tax increase next year, if Congress passes the proposed Medicare prescription drug legislation and raises taxes to pay for ...
November 14, 2003
Medicare Malady #84: Great Tests In Health Policy History?Not!
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Washington lawmakers are floating the idea of a "demonstration program" that would give seniors more choices by allowing private health plans to compete directly for ...
November 13, 2003
Medicare Malady #83: Why Test Something That Already Works?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
One of the tougher issues for lawmakers has been whether to give seniors the right to choose better private health options. Under an agreement reached ...
November 13, 2003
A "Demonstration Project" = No Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #366)
The House–Senate conference committee outline agreement this week guts any serious long-term reform of the troubled Medicare program while proposing the single largest entitlement expansion ...
November 10, 2003
Cost Control in the Medicare Drug Bill Needs Premium Support, Not a "Trigger"
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #1704)
The trigger proposal will do little if anything to hold down the mushrooming taxpayer cost of Medicare. It could easily be evaded by politicians who ...
November 10, 2003
Medicare Malady #81: Dinner's On Me (But You Can't Order That)
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
It sounded attractive. But then the caveats arrived: If Congress created a universal entitlement program, analysts noted, employers would drop coverage for about 4 million ...
November 10, 2003
Medicare Malady #82: Hypo-Hypocrites on The Hill
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Is there such a word as a hypo-hypocrite? If not, we might have to invent it to describe federal lawmakers who want to help Medicare ...
November 4, 2003
Real Medicare Reform: The Right Way to do Premium Support
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #360)
In 2011, the first big wave of the huge baby-boom generation will start to retire. In these final days of the House-Senate conference on Medicare ...
October 27, 2003
More Taxpayer Subsidies Will Not Correct Congress' Medicare Drug Miscalculation
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #357)
House and Senate Medicare conferees are scrambling to find a solution to the problem of senior dumping – which will occur when former employers drop ...
October 23, 2003
What Is True Medicare Reform?
By The Honorable Jon Kyl
(Heritage Lecture #805)
Adding an FEHBP-style private option to traditional fee-for-service Medicare could provide the flexibility, choices, and economics to produce both high quality and lower cost. The ...
October 15, 2003
Will the Conferees' Medicare Insurance Provisions Really Work?
By Robert Laszewski
(Heritage Lecture #801)
Should Medicare benefits be offered in the private sector or as part of traditional Medicare? If you listen to Washington-based insurance industry trade associations, you ...
October 7, 2003
Recent Research Confirms that Seniors Will Lose Coverage Under New Medicare Legislation
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #345)
A recently released study by a former adviser to President Bill Clinton corroborates findings by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and shows that the universal ...
October 2, 2003
The Medicare Drug Entitlement's High Cost to Seniors with Employer-Based Coverage
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #344)
The House and Senate each deliberately ignored the Joint Economic Committee's sober warning when passing different versions of Medicare legislation (H.R. 1 and S. 1), ...
September 25, 2003
What New Survey Research Reveals About the Medicare Drug Debate
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #342)
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey illustrates a huge problem facing seniors about the Medicare prescription drug debate: Too many know far too little about ...
September 24, 2003
What Will Medicare's Future Hold For Seniors and Taxpayers?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Thomas R. Saving, Ph.D., Jeff Lemieux
(Heritage Lecture #797)
Projections of Medicare's future debt obligations are staggering. Even without any prescription drug benefits, current participants will be owed $13 trillion. New generations, whose taxes ...
August 26, 2003
What Seniors Will Lose with a Universal Medicare Drug Entitlement
By Lanhee Chen
(Backgrounder #1680)
Millions of American seniors have worked hard their entire lives in the belief that they would receive health insurance benefits, including coverage for prescription drugs, ...
August 12, 2003
The Sky's the Limit: Medicare's Upwardly Mobile Drug Cost Projections
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #326)
Whatever the outcome of the current House–Senate conference on Medicare legislation, taxpayers can depend on one thing: The cost projections of the Medicare drug entitlement ...
August 12, 2003
How Much Will the Senate Drug Bill Cost a Family of Four?
By Derek Hunter and William Beach
(WebMemo #306)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Senate Medicare prescription drug bill will cost $400 billion over the next 10 years. This cost, however, is ...
August 7, 2003
Using the Federal Employees' Model: Nine Tests for Rational Medicare Reform
By Walton Francis
(Backgrounder #1675)
To be effective, Medicare reform must ensure that government functions as a good business partner with health plans; establish reasonable and predictable financing; allow health ...
August 7, 2003
The FEHBP as a Model for Medicare Reform: Separating Fact from Fiction
By Walton Francis
(Backgrounder #1674)
In deciding the future of Medicare, Congress must choose between consumer choice or legislative and bureaucratic control of benefit design, prices, and operational decisions. A ...
July 30, 2003
New Medicare Drug Entitlement's Huge New Tax on Working Americans
By Brian M. Riedl and William W. Beach
(Backgrounder #1673)
President George W. Bush and many in Congress cite tax relief as the centerpiece of their economic agenda. Lawmakers who vote for the Medicare drug ...
July 17, 2003
How Congress's Medicare Drug Provisions Would Reduce Seniors' Existing Private Coverage
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1668)
The House-Senate conferees now attempting to reconcile two profoundly flawed Medicare bills should go back to the drawing board and use as a blueprint the ...
July 16, 2003
The Crucial Elements of an Acceptable Medicare Bill
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1667)
In dealing with the Medicare bills now being considered in conference, Congress must face up to the task of legislating real reform, modernizing the program, ...
July 15, 2003
How the Senate Medicare Drug Bill Would Raise Senior Citizens' Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs
By Lanhee J. Chen
(WebMemo #312)
Many Medicare beneficiaries could pay up to 50 percent more for their medicines -- in some cases $600 more per year -- under the Senate's ...
June 26, 2003
An Analysis of the White House Position on Medicare Legislation
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #305)
The White House Office of Communications recently issued a series of "questions and answers" on the Medicare legislation before the House and the Senate. The ...
June 25, 2003
An Analysis of House Medicare Legislation
By Lanhee J. Chen, Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #302)
This analysis examines the House Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2003 (H.R. 2473). The bill establishes a universal, but voluntary, drug benefit as ...
June 23, 2003
Time to Draw the Line on Medicare "Reform"
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #300)
The success or failure of the entire Medicare program will rest on whether or not Congress can make real reform the centerpiece of any legislative ...
June 23, 2003
Public Supports Choice In the Medicare Program
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo #301)
A Zogby International poll -- sponsored by The Galen Institute -- found there is broad support, including amongst seniors, for choice between traditional Medicare and ...
June 18, 2003
What's Wrong with the Senate Medicare Drug Bill
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #297)
Thirty-seven percent of all retirees with employer-based drug coverage would lose it under the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, the Medicare bill ...
June 17, 2003
Analysis of the Evolving Senate Medicare Bill
By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #296)
A preliminary analysis of the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 based on a descriptive outline of the Senate bill's provisions; it is ...
June 13, 2003
The Medicare Drug Bill: An Impending Disaster for all Americans
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #293)
Rather than combining steps to help some seniors with reforms to the unsustainable finances of the Medicare program, Congress' "reforms" will reduce choice and innovation ...
June 13, 2003
The Medicare Drug Bill: An Impending Disaster for All Americans
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #885)
Congress appears on course to enacting, and President George W. Bush is likely to sign, what Bill Clinton's Medicare administrator calls "the biggest expansion of ...
June 10, 2003
FEHB 101: What Medicare Reformers Should Know
By The Honorable Kay Coles James
(Heritage Lecture #792)
President George W. Bush's Medicare reform framework would guarantee all seniors access to a prescription drug benefit, as well as the freedom and opportunity to ...
June 6, 2003
Issues of Concern Related to Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit Ph. D.
(WebMemo #288)
Three important issues are imperative to achieve real Medicare reform. Specific provisions can change the structure of Medicare from a rigid system of central planning ...
June 4, 2003
Comparing the Performance of Medicare and the FEHBP
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #285)
Compares the performance of Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and brings attention to the enormous weaknesses in the Medicare program.
May 22, 2003
Building A Better Medicare Program: The Senate Aging Committee's Focus on Patient Choice and Market Competition
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #279)
Summary of testimony from four experts -- before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging -- examining ways to strengthen and improve the Medicare program. ...
May 16, 2003
Health Plan Choice in Rural Areas
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #275)
As Members of Congress consider Medicare reform options, a recurrent issue is the provision of health plan choice for residents of rural areas.
May 6, 2003
A Road Map to Medicare Reform: Building on the Experience of the FEHBP
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Congressional testimony by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
April 18, 2003
The Disparity In Value Between FEHBP and Medicare Coverage
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #262)
Derek Hunter evaluates the differences between FEHBP and Medicare Coverage.
April 17, 2003
Giving Rural Seniors a Choice of Health Plans: The FEHBP Model for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #258)
To guarantee the right to choose a better plan, Congress should model Medicare reform after the successful Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
April 17, 2003
Health Care Choice and Patient Satisfaction
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #259)
President George W. Bush wants to reform Medicare along the same lines as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the choice-driven program that insures ...
April 8, 2003
Comparing Medicare and Private Health Insurance Spending
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., with Alfredo Goyburu
(WebMemo #250)
Although private insurance spending has risen faster than Medicare spending over the past 30 years, the value of private insurance has grown just as rapidly. ...
March 18, 2003
The 2003 Trustees' Report on the Medicare Program
By Robert E. Moffit Ph.D.
(WebMemo #223)
Outlines keyfindings in the Trustees' Report.
February 26, 2003
Achieving Progress on Medicare
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1627)
Failure to link benefit improvements with needed reforms will simply lead to a Medicare program that is inferior and fails to provide enough help to ...
February 21, 2003
What the GAO Says About the Best Model for Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1625)
Recently published U.S. General Accounting Office analyses describe how the FEHBP works, including its broad choice of plans, historical deference to the personal choices of ...
February 14, 2003
Getting The Details Right: The Key Do's And Don'ts Of Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #208)
Getting The Details Right: The Key Do's And Don'ts Of Medicare Reform
February 7, 2003
What The GAO Says About The Best Model For Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #204)
he President has indicated in his State of the Union address that the model for Medicare reform should be the popular and successful Federal Employees ...
January 28, 2003
The Model for Real Medicare Reform: State of The Union Response
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #196)
President Bush outlined a Medicare model broadly based on the recommendations of the majority of the National Bipartisan Commission on The Future of Medicare. The ...
November 4, 2002
What Seniors Should Know About Government Restrictions on Prescription Drugs
By Susan Horn Ph.D., Frederick Goodwin, M.D., and Robert Goldberg, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1611)
The best way to ensure seniors' access to new and effective drugs is to transform Medicare into a new system based on patient choice and ...
October 16, 2002
Senate Medicare "Give Back" Bill Thwarts the President's Efforts To Help Uninsured
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #160)
America stands undecided over whether health care system should be transformed into a public utility or a patient-centered, consumer-driven system in which individuals make their ...
September 9, 2002
Congress Should Think Twice About Allowing the Medicare Bureaucracy To Manage a Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1583)
Congress should design a new system that incorporates personal choice and market competition, as the FEHBP does. Medicare patients should have the means to choose ...
August 16, 2002
A Medicare Prescription Drug Primer
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo #136)
Views from around the country about Medicare prescription drug reform.
July 26, 2002
Back to the Future: Will the Senate's Madcap Drug Derby End in A Catastrophic Medicare Crash?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #132)
In the aftermath of three Senate Medicare prescription drug proposals collapsing for want of consensus in the Senate, the Senate leadership is scrambling to cobble ...
July 23, 2002
Time for a Sensible Medicare Drug Benefit
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Grace-Marie Turner, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1573)
The Prescription Drug Security Card could provide meaningful help for low-income seniors who do not have access to drug coverage. These seniors should be the ...
July 19, 2002
A Bunch of Better Ideas For Senate Medicare Legislation
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #129)
The next generation of retirees will be thankful if they are given the opportunity to enroll in a system that is characterized by personal freedom, ...
July 19, 2002
It's Time for A Sensible Medicare Drug Policy
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Grace-Marie Turner, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #130)
President Bush has promoted a drug discount card without success, but Congress can put resources behind it to target needy seniors and make it work ...
June 14, 2002
Critical Reform Must Accompany a Medicare Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #820)
EM820: Critical Reform Must Accompany a Medicare Drug Benefit
May 17, 2002
Courting Disaster: Adding a Prescription Drug Benefit Without Serious Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #816)
Prominent Members of Congress are poised to inflict serious financial damage on an already troubled Medicare program. Specifically, these legislators propose adding an expensive prescription ...
April 22, 2002
Why Doctors Are Abandoning Medicare and What Should Be Done About It
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1539)
It is not enough to treat the symptoms of the Medicare problem. To meet the emerging needs of the baby-boom generation, Congress and the Administration ...
March 20, 2002
The FEHBP as a model for reforming Medicare
By Stuart Butler
(Testimony )
Introduction to the FEHBP.
November 19, 2001
How Washington Can Improve Health Care Coverage for Federal Workers and Their Families
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1504)
Members of Congress, their staffs, and approximately 9 million other federal workers, retirees, and their families in the 42-year-old Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) ...
October 16, 2001
Recent Premium Increases and the Future of the FEHBP
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Because health care benefits, like wages, are normally counted as compensation, Congress could enroll military families in the FEHBP in a budget-neutral fashion and pass ...
May 18, 2001
Overhauling Medicare: What It Will Take to Attract Private Providers
By James Frogue, Richard Smith, Alissa Fox, Janet Stokes Trautwein, and Victoria Craig Bunce
(Heritage Lecture #704)
Medicare reform is an unavoidably hot topic for Congress and the Administration. Fundamental restructuring of this vital program is critical to its long-term fiscal health, ...
May 17, 2001
Beware of Medicare: Why Tax Cuts Are No Threat to Medicare
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and D. Mark Wilson
(Backgrounder #1442)
Congress should recognize the real distinction between tax policy and Medicare reform and examine each of the President's policy proposals on its own merits rather ...
March 27, 2001
Using the Breaux-Frist Medicare Proposals to Craft Solid Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1423)
President Bush, in developing his own legislative reform proposal for Medicare, can build on the best of the Breaux-Frist proposals, which promise a good start ...
March 15, 2001
Transcending Medicare's Regulatory Regime
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Medicare will face an unprecedented demand for medical services within this decade from an increasingly well educated, diverse and rapidly growing retiree population. Insisting on ...
September 20, 2000
The Clinton Drug Plan: A Prescription for Massive Regulation
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #696)
The Clinton Medicare proposal is taking exactly the wrong approach.
July 31, 2000
"Lock Box" Schemes Will Not Solve Medicare's Real Financial Problems
By Peter Sperry and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1387)
Clinton's "Lock Box" is no more than an accounating gimmick.
June 29, 2000
Regulated to Death: How Medicare's Bureaucracy Is Killing Seniors' Choices
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #687)
Congress should create a system of Medicare coverage based on patient choice and genuine competition.
June 26, 2000
The House Medicare Drug Plan: A Modest Step Toward Reform
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #686)
The Thomas bill falls short of the broad reform needed, but it is intended as a step in that direction.
June 12, 2000
Three More Strikes on Prescription Drugs
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #683)
Three proposed bills fall short of offering seniors what they truly deserve--a comprehensive reform of Medicare.
May 12, 2000
How Medicare Bureaucracy Limits the Range of Medical Treatment Available to Seniors
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Susan Bartlett Foote, Timothy Blanchard, and William G. Plested, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #666)
Medicare can be fixed and it certainly will not take thousands of pages of regulations.
May 11, 2000
How Medicare Paperwork Abuses Doctors and Harms Patients
By Grace Marie Arnett, Jonathan Emord, Laurence Huntoon, M.D., and Robert Charrow
(Heritage Lecture #665)
Medicare patients do not reliably receive the best medical care in America.
April 17, 2000
Designing a Targeted Drug Benefit for America's Seniors
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #669)
Short of comprehensive reform, the next best solution would be to design a targeted subsidy for low-income seniors.
February 18, 2000
Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1347)
Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
February 17, 2000
A Closer Look at Clinton's Medicare Proposal
By James Frogue and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1346)
President Clinto has put forth a proposal that would dramatically expand the bureaucratic power of HCFA and add new entitlement spending to a system that ...
November 3, 1999
A High Price Prescription: Clinton's Medicare Drug Proposal
By Dr. Gail Wilensky, Dr. Howard Cohen, & Dwight Bartlet
(Heritage Lecture #647)
Panel discussion on the Clinton Administration's Medicare prescription drug initiative.
October 15, 1999
How the Medicare Bureaucracy Threatens Patient Privacy
By Paul Appelbaum, M.D., Kent Masterson Brown, Jim Pyles, and Ronald Welch
(Heritage Lecture #646)
The HCFA proposed a rule to force almost 10,000 home health-care agencies around the country to report sensitive personal information on patients.
September 15, 1999
How Not to Reform Medicare: Lessons From the Medicare+Choice Experiment
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Backgrounder #1319)
Medicare, the huge and financially troubled health program covering almost 40 million elderly and disabled citizens, is in desperate need of reform.
July 6, 1999
Bill Clinton's Risky Drug Plan
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #611)
President Clinton's Medicare prescription drug proposal is a sweeping and ill-designed plan to address a limited problem.
June 18, 1999
Why an Unreformed Medicare System is Hazardous to Your Health
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Backgrounder #1295)
Too many Medicare patients are unaware that the quality of their health care is in jeopardy.
June 16, 1999
How to Provide Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1293)
Congress is under considerable pressure to address the absence of outpatient prescription drug coverage in Medicare.
June 14, 1999
Reorganizing the Medicare System to Ensure a Better Program for Seniors
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1294)
There is considerable pressure on Congress to add an outpatient drug benefit to Medicare.
May 27, 1999
Restructuring Medicare for the Next Century
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Reform involves not only addressing the financing of Medicare, but also critical governance issues.
April 22, 1999
GAO to President Clinton: Why Your Plan Would Make Medicare Worse
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1276)
Policymakers generally have avoided a serious re-examination and reform of the troubled Medicare program.
March 22, 1999
HCFA's Latest Assault on Patient Privacy
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #580)
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the powerful bureaucracy that runs the Medicare program, is out of control.
January 29, 1999
Principles for a Bipartisan Reform of Medicare
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1247)
Congress and the Clinton Administration have the unprecedented opportunity to enact into law a reform of Medicare that will address the program's long-term benefit and ...
September 1, 1998
Medicare Minus Choice
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1218)
It now appears that, at least for its inaugural year, the "+Choice" part of the Medicare program has failed to materialize.
August 3, 1998
How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1209)
How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
June 30, 1998
Private Doctor-Patient Agreements: How the Medicare Law Forbids Free Choice
By The Hon. Jon Kyl (R–AZ); Kent Masterson Brown; J. Edward Hill, M.D.; Robert E. Moffit, Ph,D.
(Heritage Lecture #620)
Private Doctor-Patient Agreements: How
June 12, 1997
Congress's Own Health Plan As A Model For Medicaire Reform
By Stuart Butler, Ph.D. and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1123)
BG1123: Congress's Own Health Plan As A Model For Medicaire Reform
June 12, 1997
Giving Seniors The Same Health Plan Congress Has
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #487)
EM487: Giving Seniors The Same Health Plan Congress Has
April 30, 1997
Time is Running Out for Medicare Reform
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1112)
BG1112: Time is Running Out For Medicare Reform
October 30, 1995
Reforming Medicare: What Congress Can Learn from the Health Plans of America's Corporations
By Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D.
(Backgrounder #1059)
Members of Congress can learn much from the experience of private corporations, where innovative plan designs have cut costs...
September 22, 1995
