Medicare: Lessons Learned by a Former Medicare Commissioner

Abstract

As a member of the Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, this writer shares with readers the valuable lessons learned during the deliberations that focused on saving the ailing Medicare program. The author points out that although this prestigious group did not offer a “super majority opinion,” it did move the debate forward by focusing on current problems within the Medicare program and proposed a number of innovative approaches for reform, including use of a “premium support” and a prescription drug benefit. This writer contends that a “cure” for the Medicare program must revolve around choice, competition, and the use of market forces and efficiencies, along with a movement to a more consistent proven standard of care. Medicare’s ultimate future will depend on fixing health care from the bottom up.