Medicare

Should the U.S. Government Offer Its Own Health Insurance Plan to People under Age 65?

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:45:00 -0400

The question of whether a new public health insurance plan should be allowed to compete with private health insurance plans has polarized the health reform debate unnecessarily. Extremes from both political parties have tried to use the issue to prevent progress toward a bipartisan health reform package.

But health reform must be bipartisan to be sustainable over time. This means both sides' priorities must be reflected in the policy solution.

Using Medicare to Lower Health Care Costs

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:54:00 -0400

Our nation must re-establish fiscal balance as soon as macroeconomically permissible. At this moment, there is no question that we must take substantive steps to stimulate our economy and address the crises in our housing and financial markets.

In fact, I have never seen such consensus in a profession as argumentative as economics. But America's economic and social futures are also threatened by several long-term challenges. First among these is the ever-rising cost of health care.

Which Party Will Attract the Busted Boomers?

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:40:00 -0400

While 2008 will go down as a year of hope and change in American politics, the collapse of Wall Street and bursting of the housing bubble will probably mean that fear and anger take center stage in the 2010 elections. If so, the most coveted swing voters may soon be the Busted Boomers - individuals 50 and older who placed supreme faith in the financial markets and now find their long-held dreams of a comfortable retirement eviscerated.

Making Medicare Sustainable

Health Policy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:40:00 -0400

About the Collection:

The ever-growing cost of health care is the largest threat to our nation's long-term fiscal future. One way of tackling this problem is by using Medicare-the nation's largest purchaser of health care-as a catalyst for widespread efficiencies in the private sector. Medicare must become a more value-based purchaser to make the Program sustainable over time and incent the private sector toward change. It is imperative that we act decisively and soon. Yet, we believe embarking on a Medicare-only reform effort

Obama Budget to Spark Fight in US Congress | Reuters

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:10:00 -0500

"It won't be smooth sailing," predicted Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which wants tough controls to bring down deficit spending and reform expensive programs like Social Security and the Medicare ...

Some Doctors Contend Medicare Offers a Prescription For Failure | Investor's Business Daily

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:54:00 -0500

Jacob Hacker, a fellow at the New America Foundation and author of a paper advocating an optional public health plan modeled on Medicare, says the number of ...

An Economic Bill of Rights

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:19:00 -0500

On January 11, 1944, in his annual State of the Union Address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for an economic bill of rights. The rise of totalitarianism, he said, had taught the lesson that "necessitous men are not free men" because the miserable and the desperate "are the stuff out of which dictatorships are made." According to Roosevelt, "In our days these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of

Is the Time Finally Right for National Reform? | MarketWatch

Communications — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:17:00 -0500

... 20 years or so," said Jacob Hacker, co-director of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security. ...

New Report: Public Insurance Option Needed to Provide Affordable ... | MarketWatch

Communications — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:34:00 -0500

The report, by health care expert and UC Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker, says a public health insurance plan like Medicare offered together with private ...

Financial Report: Entitlement Programs Underfunded by Trillions

Communications — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:43:00 -0500