Defining the Real Problems
In order to fix Medicare to make it equitable and sustainable, the administrative and financing problems of the program must be clearly defined. Two papers will be commissioned by the Medicare Reform Project to accomplish this goal.
“Medicare’s Diagnosis: Serious or Critical?”
Rick Kronick, Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego
The project’s first paper will analyze Medicare’s current status across six major areas: access, quality, cost, comparative administrative efficiency, equity, and public good; as well as subtopics including variations (quality, geographic, personal) and comparisons (to other countries and to the private sector). It will also identify the Medicare financing gap and examine the range of options for closing it.
“Who Will the Beneficiaries Be in 2017 and 2037?”
(Author to be announced)
In addition to the financial situation of Medicare changing through future years, each cohort of beneficiaries will have a different experience than the last—the rules, technology, services available to them will all be different, and the beneficiaries themselves will have different ranges of income, assets, and chronic conditions than the previous ones. Furthermore, the projected health and financial statuses of future beneficiaries are indeed projections, and we must be careful when building hard laws and regulations on them.
Rick Kronick, Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego
The project’s first paper will analyze Medicare’s current status across six major areas: access, quality, cost, comparative administrative efficiency, equity, and public good; as well as subtopics including variations (quality, geographic, personal) and comparisons (to other countries and to the private sector). It will also identify the Medicare financing gap and examine the range of options for closing it.
“Who Will the Beneficiaries Be in 2017 and 2037?”
(Author to be announced)
In addition to the financial situation of Medicare changing through future years, each cohort of beneficiaries will have a different experience than the last—the rules, technology, services available to them will all be different, and the beneficiaries themselves will have different ranges of income, assets, and chronic conditions than the previous ones. Furthermore, the projected health and financial statuses of future beneficiaries are indeed projections, and we must be careful when building hard laws and regulations on them.
