Weekly Newsletter: February 15, 2008
- Medicare Trigger Legislation Submitted
This week the President formally submitted to Congress legislation to reform Medicare, as required by Title VIII of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA). The so-called trigger provisions of Title VIII—inserted into MMA five years ago at the behest of RSC members—requires the President to submit legislative remedies when the Medicare trustees certify that Medicare expenditures are consuming a growing portion of general budget revenues, and provides a mechanism for both Houses of Congress to demand an up-or-down vote on a solution to Medicare’s funding woes.
The President’s proposal to Congress includes three planks: value-based purchasing (also known as “pay-for-performance”), medical liability reform, and a means-tested premium for Medicare Part D, similar to the means-tested Part B premium incorporated into MMA. These proposals follow on the heels of the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget submission to Congress, which proposed $178 billion in savings over the next five years, largely through adjustments to provider reimbursement rates (see below).
Although some conservatives may have concerns over the significant intrusion into doctor-patient relationships that pay-for-performance could create, it is worth noting that the President has put forward two distinct proposals for Medicare reform in as many weeks. While some conservatives will look to more comprehensive measures—re-structuring of Medicare cost-sharing, and Medicare’s eventual conversion into a health care system similar to that provided to Members of Congress—many view the measures advanced by the Administration, and supported by the Republican leadership in Congress, as a positive first step in the cause of comprehensive entitlement reform.
When it comes to entitlement reform, the cost of inaction is great: the Government Accountability Office estimates that each year Congress does not act to reform Social Security and Medicare, their unfunded liability to the federal government grows by $2 trillion. Congress needs to act—and act now—on comprehensive reforms to Medicare.
To learn more about the trigger, read the RSC policy briefs on this issue.
Analysis of Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Proposals
Last week the Administration put forward its Fiscal Year 2009 budget, which contained several key health-related proposals. The President’s budget suggested generating $178 billion in savings from Medicare over the next five years, slowing its projected rate of growth from 7.2% to 5.0% and saving beneficiaries $6.2 billion in Part B premiums over five years. The budget also proposed $14 billion in savings from Medicaid, but more than offset these savings by proposing a $19 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The RSC prepared a policy brief highlighting the President’s health care proposals.
Articles of Note
Two articles in the past week dissected the ongoing debate between Democrat Presidential contenders over a mandate for individual coverage, while providing all the proof needed that such a mandate would likely prove ineffective. While Politico noted Sen. Hillary Clinton’s “winner-take-all” approach to universal coverage and an individual mandate, the Wall Street Journal provided insights as to why most conservatives view mandates as both unnecessary and unworkable:
Census Department data indicate that more than one-third of the uninsured—over 17.7 million Americans—come from families with annual incomes over $50,000, raising questions as to how many of the uninsured cannot afford to buy insurance and how many do not wish to purchase insurance, because costly state regulations have inflated premiums.
- Massachusetts has already exempted 20% of its uninsured population from its “universal” individual mandate—a number which is likely to climb in future years, as the cost of overregulated health insurance products in the state skyrockets.
- Hawaii has incorporated a “pay-or-play” mandate—requiring most employers to subsidize their workers’ health insurance—for more than three decades, yet Hawaii still has more than 100,000 uninsured individuals—even though employers cannot easily relocate their businesses to other states in order to avoid paying the higher health costs associated with the mandate.
As the Journal points out, enforcing a mandate will require both harsh government penalties—Sen. Clinton has suggested garnishing workers’ wages—and a new federal bureaucracy to enforce them.
Read the articles here: Politico: “Mandate vs. Incentive”
The Wall Street Journal: “The Wages of HillaryCare” (subscription required)