Why did Medicare spending growth slow down?

Did 1980s legislation slow Medicare spending?

How Should Congress Pay to Repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate.pub

 Medicare spending could be reduced by far more than 3% without harming patients by giving physicians the tools they need to keep patients healthy, avoid unnecessary tests and procedures, reduce avoidable hospitalizations, and prevent infections and complications. Savings from better care could be used to pay for repealing the SGR and for making reasonable annual updates to physician payments...

Withholds to slow Medicare spending: a better deal than cuts.

CONSENSUS HAS EMERGED ON THE NEED TO SLOW Medicare spending growth, but there is no agreement on how best to do so. Although many approaches have been suggested, Congress is almost certain to consider across-the-board cuts in reimbursement rates. It is not hard to understand why: cuts are easy to implement and appear to deliver clear savings. But cuts in fees are a poor long-term solution to th...

Slowing the growth of health care costs--lessons from regional variation.

n engl j med 360;9 nejm.org february 26, 2009 849 back burner is perhaps the most serious threat to Americans’ access to care: rapid growth in health care costs. Pessimism abounds. Most observers see rising costs as an inexorable force, blame advancing technology, and conclude that only by rationing beneficial care or making draconian price cuts can we slow the growth of health care costs. But ...

Preserving Medicare: A Practical Approach to Controlling Spending

Spending on the major entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is a primary target of those seeking to reduce the federal deficit. In this paper, we focus on the debate over Medicare. Much of the discussion about the need for substantial reform in Medicare ignores the cuts in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of about $500 billion over 10 years. This has reduced the projected g...