A Premium Support System for Medicare: Analysis of Illustrative Options

A Premium Support System for Medicare: Updated Analysis of Illustrative Options

Premium Rebates and the Quiet Consensus on Market Reform for Medicare

Premium rebates allow beneficiaries who choose more efficient Medicare options to receive cash rebates, rather than extra benefits. That simple idea has been controversial. Without fanfare, however, premium rebates have become a key area of agreement in the debate on Medicare reform. Moreover, in legislation in late 2000, it became official policy: Medicare+Choice (M+C) plans will be allowed to...

Dental Care And Medicare Beneficiaries: Access Gaps, Cost Burdens, And Policy Options.

Despite the wealth of evidence that oral health is related to physical health, Medicare explicitly excludes dental care from coverage, leaving beneficiaries at risk for tooth decay and periodontal disease and exposed to high out-of-pocket spending. To profile these risks, we examined access to dental care across income groups and types of insurance coverage in 2012. High-income beneficiaries we...

Making Medicare advantage a middle-class program.

This paper studies the role of Medicare's premium policy in sorting beneficiaries between traditional Medicare (TM) and managed care plans in the Medicare advantage (MA) program. Beneficiaries vary in their demand for care. TM fully accommodates demand but creates a moral hazard inefficiency. MA rations care but disregards some elements of the demand. We describe an efficient assignment of bene...

Designing a Premium Support System for Medicare

Notes All years referred to in this study are calendar years. All dollar amounts are expressed in current dollars. Preface Dr iven by rising health care costs and an aging population, federal spending on the Medicare program will exert substantial pressures on the federal budget over the coming decades. Policymakers have considered a number of strategies for restraining Medicare spending. One a...