WASHINGTON
— Robert Bixby, Executive Director of The Concord Coalition, testified before
the Senate Finance Committee today at a hearing on Medicare Reform: Issues and
Options. His testimony highlighted
the urgent need for Medicare reform and the reform criteria that should guide
policy makers, including quality care, fiscal sustainability, generational
responsibility, income related cost sharing, efficient provision of medical
WASHINGTON
— Robert Bixby, Executive Director of The Concord Coalition, testified before
the Senate Finance Committee today at a hearing on Medicare Reform: Issues and
Options. His testimony highlighted
the urgent need for Medicare reform and the reform criteria that should guide
policy makers, including quality care, fiscal sustainability, generational
responsibility, income related cost sharing, efficient provision of medical
care and prompt action. Excerpts from his testimony follow:
“Unfortunately, today’s prosperity, welcomed
as it is, has not repealed the coming age wave. Nor has it erased the projected growth in age-related entitlement
programs such as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. And in November 1999, the Technical Panel of
the Social Security Advisory Board warned that the official projections of the
Medicare and Social Security trustees might greatly understate future
longevity, and hence future costs.
“Thus,
even if recent projections prove accurate and the federal government enjoys a
period of prolonged surpluses, the fact remains that between now and 2040, the
number of Americans age 65 and older will approximately double; the number of
workers paying into Medicare and Social Security relative to the number of
beneficiaries will fall by more than a third; the cost of Social Security and
Medicare as a percentage of the economy will grow by more than 70 percent; and
the annual infusion of general revenues into the two programs will approach
$700 billion in inflation adjusted dollars.
“The
Concord Coalition believes we must go beyond merely achieving a short-term
on-budget balance. We advocate using the current economic, fiscal, demographic and political
windows of opportunity to address the long-term Medicare and Social Security
deficits that will accompany the aging of the nation’s population. These deficits threaten to undo the hard work
and fiscal discipline of recent years and undermine our potential for future
economic growth.
“Reduced
to fundamentals, controlling Medicare costs over the long term requires some
combination of 1) reducing the number of people eligible for the program; 2)
increasing how much some participants pay (either for insurance or for medical
care); or 3) reducing total program costs per beneficiary. If costs cannot be kept down, then 4)
additional revenues will have to be found.
Despite concerns about unsustainable costs over the long term, there is
pressure to 5) expand the program to cover prescription drugs and long term
care.
“The
Concord Coalition believes that Congress and the Administration shouldn’t enact
new entitlements (such as a prescription drug benefit) until it is confident
that America can afford the ones it already has. … (We) will oppose any policy changes that increase the cost of
future promised benefits without also identifying a credible way to finance
those benefits,” Bixby testified.
The Concord Coalition recently released its
Primer on Medicare, which is
now available on the organization’s website. The primer, which explains Medicare’s current problems and
outlines options for solving them, uses 22 charts to describe the current
program, present the problem and establish criteria for reform. Various options for reform are discussed,
ranging from incremental steps to major structural reform.
