Different Takes: What’s Next For Medicare Cost Controls? Vladeck And Wilensky Offer Their Views

Bruce Vladeck — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:26:00 +0000

During the course of negotiations to rasie the debt ceiling, proposals to reduce Medicare costs had an on-again, off-again presence at the table. We asked Bruce Vladeck and Gail Wilensky which of these ideas could have a positive or negative impact on the program.

A ‘Pernicioius’ Idea: Proposals To Forbid First-Dollar Coverage For Medicare Beneficiaries

Bruce Vladeck, who oversaw Medicare and Medicaid from 1993 to 1997,��writes��about “one especially pernicious proposal” to rein in Medicare savings —��the prohibition of first-dollar coverage in Medicare supplemental insurance.

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An Unreasonable Expectation…��

Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare ane Medicaid during the George H.W. Bush administration, writes that, although��there has been an��expectations that the current fiscal crisis��“would produce the ‘right environment’ to finally reform entitlements — particularly Medicare,”��it won’t be easy to get lawmaker and public to seriously engage in Medicare reform.

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Different Takes: What's Next For Medicare Cost Controls? Vladeck And Wilensky Offer Their Views - �鶹Ů�� Health News

Different Takes: What’s Next For Medicare Cost Controls? Vladeck And Wilensky Offer Their Views