#Medicare

The Medicare actuaries have just updated their projections for National Health Expenditures (NHE) and the overall picture they illustrate is a welcome one, but likely reflects temporary factors and cannot serve as an excuse for politicans to rest on their…

WASHINGTON -- The Concord Coalition said today that the new annual report from the Social Security and Medicare Trustees underscores the unsustainable nature of both programs in their current forms and further demonstrates the need for bipartisan cooperation on a…

Last week two committees in the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This is an alarming attempt to undo a key cost-saving enforcement mechanism without putting anything else in its place. You may recall…

President Obama is expected to quickly sign legislation to extend the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” on Medicare reimbursements through the end of the year, but unfortunately without an adequate financing plan.After months of partisan jousting…

Bipartisan efforts to reform Medicare were elevated this week by the release of a proposal from Senate Budget Committee member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Their proposal would convert Medicare into a “premium support”…

The demise of the deficit reduction super committee left many people wondering whether the polarized atmosphere in Washington has made it impossible for Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement on the thorniest issues that must be resolved to achieve a…

As elected officials weighed reforms that could put the federal budget on a sustainable track, the AARP last week reiterated its opposition to even including Social Security and Medicare in the discussion. The organization’s recent explanations for what appears to…

President Obama offered his deficit-reduction recommendations to the congressional super committee on Monday, urging the panel to find both spending cuts and additional tax revenue to far exceed its assigned goal.Obama put Medicare and Medicaid on the negotiating table, giving…