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 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 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 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 22, 2003
A New Direction for Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #355)
Medicaid is in trouble. Budget shortfalls and the growing number of beneficiaries are forcing many states to reassess their Medicaid programs. Congress and states should ...
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 25, 2003
Why Medicare Expansion Threatens the Bush Tax Cuts and Undermines Fundamental Tax Reform
By Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1672)
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
Missing the Point of Medicare Reform: Why Drug Reimportation Is Bad Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #304)
Some Members of Congress want to establish a policy to guarantee Americans "cheap" prescription drugs by allowing them to import drugs subject to the price ...
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 12, 2003
Why Congress Should Expand Displaced Trade Workers' Access to Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #290)
A federal health care tax credit, made possible by the 2002 Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, has an unintended consequence: strictly defines what constitutes qualified health ...
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.
June 2, 2003
Representative Gephardt's Costly Health Plan
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1657)
Representative Richard Gephardt's proposal to expand health insurance coverage through a combination of new corporate and individual tax credits and expansions of Medicare, Medicaid, and ...
May 28, 2003
Why Maine Rx Is the Wrong Model For Improving Access to Prescription Drugs
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #282)
Health policy makers at all levels should resist accepting this Supreme Court decision as an endorsement of policy and instead re-evaluate the real effects such ...
May 27, 2003
Government Controls on Access to Drugs: What Seniors Can Learn from Medicaid Drug Policies
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1655)
Seniors should realize that efforts to control costs in Medicare will likely tie the hands of physicians by limiting treatment options, as they have in ...
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.
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.
March 14, 2003
How Tax Credits Help Overcome the Obstacles Facing the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #220)
By providing a tax credit, uninsured individuals and families would get the needed financial assistance to help them buy coverage of their choice.
March 14, 2003
Covering the Uninsured: How States Can Expand and Improve Health Coverage
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1637)
Governors and state legislators can make significant headway in reducing the number of America's uninsured, improving access to quality health care, and expanding choice and ...
March 11, 2003
How the President's Health Care Plan Would Expand Insurance Coverage to the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1636)
President Bush has put forward a series of policy changes, aimed at improving existing health care accounts, that would enable individuals and families to control ...
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 25, 2003
State Opportunities to Provide Affordable Health Coverage Under the Trade Law
By Nina Owcharenko and Edmund Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1626)
The federal health care tax credit will be equal to 65 percent of the health insurance premiums of these individuals and can be applied only ...
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 ...
January 10, 2003
The Future of Medicaid: Consumer-Directed Care
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1618)
Arkansas, New Jersey, and Florida were the first states to be granted Section 1115 waivers to participate in a demonstration project designed to empower certain ...
December 16, 2002
How States Can Expand Private Coverage with HIFA Waivers
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #846)
The Administration's HIFA initiative gives states the flexibility to expand coverage to the uninsured by integrating private coverage with traditional Medicaid and SCHIP. Building on ...
November 5, 2002
The Health Care Crisis: The President's Plan for High-Quality, Affordable Care
By The Honorable Mark McClellan
(Heritage Lecture #768)
Health care costs are rising and it is difficult to ensure that all Americans are a part of this health care system. Bush believes that ...
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 ...
October 14, 2002
How Congress Can Help Unemployed Workers and Their Families Get Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #159)
While Congress may not be able to resolve the entire problem of the uninsured this year, it can make significant progress by giving unemployed workers ...
September 20, 2002
Promoting Choice and Controlling Cost: What Congress Can Learn - Again - From its Own Health Insurance Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #146)
Real choice and genuine competition, coupled with flexible, market-friendly systems of administration, could provide a superior health care system for all Americans.
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 ...
July 18, 2002
Why Patchwork Senate Drug Bills are No Substitute for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #128)
Members of Congress should undertake structural improvements in Medicare that will ensure seniors have access to medical innovation and technology within a market-based framework that ...
July 16, 2002
Crafting a Health Care Tax Credit
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #824)
Conferees must allow tax credit recipients to choose the health care plan that best meets their needs, give them full access to all coverage options, ...
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 23, 2002
Why COBRA Should Not Be The Only Option For Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #95)
Congress has yet another opportunity to help the unemployed and prevent displaced workers from joining or remaining in the ranks of the uninsured, but it ...
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 ...
April 18, 2002
Why Expanding Medicaid to Cover the Uninsured Is Not the Solution
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #811)
Rather than expand Medicaid, a broken welfare program that promises more than it can deliver, Congress can directly help the uninsured get quality private coverage ...
March 20, 2002
Time for Bipartisan Action to Help Families Without Health Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1528)
Creating a refundable tax credit for insurance not necessarily provided through the place of employment is a sensible step that Congress could take this year ...
March 7, 2002
A Policymaker's Guide to Mental Illness
By Timothy A. Kelly, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1522)
Offering effective treatment to persons with SMI is not only the compassionate thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do from a ...
February 13, 2002
Health Care Tax Credits and the Uninsured
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony #021302)
It is vital that Congress seizes the opportunity before it to make a real downpayment on helping the uninsured through a mechanism that has strong ...
January 31, 2002
How to Administer Health Insurance
By Lynn Etheredge
(Backgrounder #1516)
On a bipartisan basis, many Members of Congress are considering using tax credits to expand private health insurance coverage to meet the needs of an ...
January 31, 2002
The Daschle Stimulus Proposal Ignores Unemployed Workers Who Lack Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #74)
Congress has the opportunity to give all displaced workers a useful health care credit that will allow them to purchase private coverage of their choice ...
