Medicare ar trebui sã creascã de partajare a costurilor Pentru bogate beneficiari, CMS Fostul administrator McClellan spune - Medicare Should Increase Cost Sharing For Wealthier Beneficiaries, Former CMS Administrator McClellan Says - articole medicale engleza

Medicare Should Increase Cost Sharing For Wealthier Beneficiaries, Former CMS Administrator McClellan Says

Wealthier Medicare beneficiaries should be required to pay higher Medicare premiums to help ensure the program's long-term stability, former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan said on Monday in a speech at the Third National Medicare Congress, sponsored by Avalere Health and Health Affairs, CQ HealthBeat reports. The speech was McClellan's first since leaving his position at CMS. McClellan said the agency should expand current plans to charge higher-income beneficiaries more for their Medicare Part B premiums. Beginning in 2007, individual beneficiaries with annual incomes of at least $80,000 will be required for the first time to pay an income-based surcharge on the standard Part B monthly premium. The new system will be phased in over three years. McClellan said about 4% of beneficiaries, or 1.8 million individuals, will be required to pay the higher Part B premiums. The government projects that about 30,000 of those beneficiaries will drop out of the program in response to the cost increase, but McClellan predicted that those who drop out will later come back to the program when they need comprehensive coverage. He said Medicare is the best deal for seniors to obtain health coverage, even if premiums are increased. McClellan said policymakers should take steps to further increase premium surcharges for higher-income beneficiaries. He also recommended that Medicare begin requiring higher-income beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare prescription drug benefit to pay higher premiums. McClellan said improving efficiency and quality of care is important but that current initiatives in those areas still would leave a "long-term gap" in Medicare funding. In addition, he said CMS is not adequately funded, an issue that is "something very important to pay attention to" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 10/16). Goldberg Opinion Piece
Democrats "plan to undo the Medicare drug program" if they win a majority of one or both chambers of Congress, Robert Goldberg, vice president for strategic initiatives at the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. According to Goldberg, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently "promised that if Democrats took control of Congress, her party would eliminate the choice of private-sector plans in favor of a single government purchaser for seniors' medications." Such a program would reduce costs "only by drastically limiting the choice of medicines that doctors and seniors now have," Goldberg writes, adding that the Department of Veterans Affairs drug plan "offers 30% fewer drugs than the average Medicare plan." Goldberg writes that "Republicans should distinguish themselves from the Democratic 'pay more for less choice' proposal by encouraging seniors to enroll in health plans that offer both prescription drugs and programs that actually control and prevent disease." In addition, he writes, Medicare should "[l]et the market drive down the price of plans and premiums," reward plans "for improving the health of the sickest patients and keeping people healthy," and provide rebates to beneficiaries who "stay well." Goldberg continues, "If Democrats want to simply attack drug prices, it will force them into a one-size-fits-all strategy that only worsens the burgeoning cost of chronic illness," adding, "It leaves Republicans with a golden opportunity to depict them as opposed to medical progress, individual choice and fiscal sanity" (Goldberg, Washington Times, 10/17).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Medicare Should Increase Cost Sharing For Wealthier Beneficiaries, Former CMS Administrator McClellan Says

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