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Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says the "super committee" has a chance at tamping down the nation's debt and slowing Medicare spending growth because the American public understands the stakes - the American Dream.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey talks to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist about the "super committee's" chance at tamping down the nation's debt. Frist says the panel has a chance to lower the debt and Medicare spending growth because the American public understands the stakes this time - the American Dream.
In his remarks to the country about the S & P downgrade, President Barack Obama said the country needed tax reform and "modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare."
The former governor says he "passed health care reform the right way. No mandates. No takeovers." But critics argue that it is unclear if the law will lower costs and it does little to expand insurance coverage.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey talks about the lack of Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the initial round of cuts tied to the debt ceiling increase, and about what sort of cuts the programs could be open to later in the year.
The debt-ceiling agreement calls for a bipartisan "super committee." This is not the first effort to find a bipartisan agreement on reducing the federal deficit; here is a guide to the health-care recommendations from four groups.
As the country has struggled to raise the debt ceiling, there have been periodic expectations that the current fiscal distress would produce the "right environment" to finally reform entitlements -- particularly Medicare. This has seemed quite astounding to me, 15 months before a presidential election year, given the presence of a divided Congress and our highly charged political environment.
The usual laundry lists of proposals for Medicare savings are already being circulated throughout official Washington. Most of these ideas have been around for years, and have never gotten past the talking stages because of political opposition or because they are simply bad ideas. But one especially pernicious proposal appears to have increasing traction among both politicians and policy analysts.
As the country has struggled to raise the debt ceiling, there have been periodic expectations that the current fiscal distress would produce the "right environment" to finally reform entitlements -- particularly Medicare. This has seemed quite astounding to me, 15 months before a presidential election year, given the presence of a divided Congress and our highly charged political environment.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about the lack of Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the initial round of cuts tied to the debt ceiling increase, and about what sort of cuts the programs could be open to later in the year.
The federal health care program also wants to pay less to hospitals with higher-than-average costs for patient care.
Within a few weeks of a shutdown of Medicare and Medicaid money, health care providers could be in financial trouble. No one knows how to plan for it.
Earlier in July, Jonathan Cohn followed the House Budget Committee's hearings on the heatlh law's Independent Payment Advisory Board. The experience inspired him to offer this reminder of what it is;, how it will work; and why it is essential to controlling Medicare costs.
New estimates from Medicare's actuaries find the nation's health spending will grow by 5.8 percent a year through 2020, compared to 5.7 percent without the overhaul.
Neither the Boehner nor the Reid plans include cuts to Medicare or Medicaid. KHN's Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about why that happened and what could bring these entitlements back into the deficit-reduction conversation.
Some Democrats are backing a "tax" on prescription drugs that would increase Medicare drug plan premiums by as much as 40 percent. Those lawmaker wouldn't describe their plan that way, of course, but that would be the effect of their plat to require drug companies to pay Medicaid-style rebates to Medicare.
Seven experts explore what it would take to muster the political will to revamp the popular health care program.
Kaiser Permanente's George Halvorson says that despite the complexity of ACO regs, some versions have the potential to save money and improve care.
NPR's Julie Rovner talks with Jackie Judd about the re-emergence of the "Gang of Six" senators in the debt-ceiling debate, what their plan means for the CLASS Act, and how missing details are likely to be filled in.
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