Sexual HealthMedicare: A Critical Element Of Health Care Reform
A panel of senior advocates and health policy experts gathered on Capitol Hill
to discuss current efforts to reform our national health care system
and a growing consensus that Medicare should play a role in that debate.
"We know there will be savings found in Medicare to help pay for system-wide
health care reform. But we must also ensure that some of those savings are
reinvested back into the program to improve the care of millions of senior
Americans."...Barbara B. Kennelly, President/CEO, National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare
"Medicare should be the model"... Marilyn Moon, Ph.D. Vice-President and
Director of the Health Program, American Institutes for Research
Today"s Medicare panel discussion, hosted by the National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the Alliance for Retired Americans,
focused on several Medicare and health care reform issues; including,
Medicare Advantage overpayments, cost containment proposals, Low Income
and Part D improvements.
"Medicare beneficiaries frequently don"t choose the plan that is the lowest
cost because Part D is too complicated to analyze. We need to simplify Part
D because it"s just too difficult to make educated choices"... Vicki Gottlich,
Senior Policy Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy
Dr. Brian Biles, Professor at George Washington University"s School of Public
Health and Health Services, detailed a variety of strategies to trim or
eliminate an estimated $150 billion dollars in Medicare Advantage
overpayments going to private insurers over the next decade. Among the
improvements those savings could help fund include: limits on out-of-pocket
costs, stronger policies on marketing and advertising, limits on the number of
private plans and additional data to support better risk adjustment of
payments.
As the nation"s largest purchaser of health services, it is inevitable that
policymakers will look to Medicare - both as a model and as a tool for system
wide health care reform. Reforming health care is vital to our nation"s long-
term economic health and today"s panelists say improving Medicare is critical
to that health care reform effort. Video clips and power point slides from
today"s panel discussion will be posted online by May 22nd at
http://www.ncpssm.org. The National Committee"s latest video "Medicare = Health
Care" can also be found on our
YouTube channel.
National Committee