Backgrounder posted May 23, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
The Obama Medicare Agenda: Why Seniors Will Fare Worse
Today’s seniors are facing higher Medicare costs. Over the next five years, current law, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also known as Obamacare), already guarantees higher out-of-pocket costs for today’s seniors. Beyond the current law, the President’s latest budget proposal would increase seniors’ costs even more. So, notwithstanding…
Backgrounder posted May 20, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Real Medicare Reform: Why Seniors Will Fare Better
Medicare reform based on a defined-contribution system of financing—commonly referred to as a “premium support” system—could slow or even reverse the growth in seniors’ annual premium costs.
Medicare Advantage (Part C), a system of private, competing plans, and Medicare Part D, the drug program, are, in effect, premium support programs. In basic structure, they have…
Backgrounder posted March 22, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Rising Costs — and the Urgent Need for Reform
The rising cost of Medicare is placing an increasing burden on current and future taxpayers, as well as exacerbating the poor financial condition of a program on which America’s seniors depend in their retirement. The traditional program’s fee-for-service payment system, in which doctors and hospitals are paid a fixed price for each and every procedure or service that…
Backgrounder posted March 22, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Outdated Structure—and the Urgent Need for Reform
Traditional Medicare, which liberals once envisioned as the foundation for national health insurance for all ages,[1] is a fee-for-service model rooted in the 1960s. Its outdated structure makes the program fundamentally flawed, as the editors of The Washington Post remarked recently: “Medicare as we know it is not sustainable” and the “ultimate solution” is structural…
Backgrounder posted March 21, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Demographic Challenge—and the Urgent Need for Reform
Americans should ignore false promises to keep “Medicare as we know it”—the program is already changing. Under the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Congress and President Barack Obama have already enacted big reductions in Medicare funding (amounting to $716 billion over the next 10 years[1]), as well as complex new rules governing federal…
Issue Brief posted March 18, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
Medicare Drugs: Why Congress Should Reject Government Price Fixing
Senator Patty Murray (D–WA), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, is offering a budget resolution claiming $275 billion in health care savings, though she provides few details.[1] But Senator Amy Klobuchar (D–MN) has introduced legislation (S. 117) that would replace today’s private-sector negotiation of Medicare drug prices with government “negotiation.” This approach…
Center for Policy Innovation Lecture posted March 14, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
Confronting Washington's Administrative State: A Renewed Role for the States
While the Constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the States must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the Union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1788 [1]
Federalism is rooted in the knowledge that our political liberties are best assured by…
Issue Brief posted November 1, 2012 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Rea S. Hederman, Jr., Alyene Senger
Obama’s Medicare Plan: Seniors Will Pay More
Today’s seniors are facing higher Medicare costs. Over the next five years, current law, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also known as “Obamacare”), and President Obama’s budget proposals guarantee higher costs for today’s seniors.
Status Quo Hikes
The 2012 Medicare trustees report says that, over the period 2012 to…