Project Overview
Series editors:  Robert B. Helms and Joseph Antos

What ails Medicare is what ails health care in America. Medicare spending is growing substantially faster than we can afford, with potentially disastrous consequences for the federal budget. Worse, although the program is paying for more services, it is not necessarily providing better care for the elderly. AEI Studies on Medicare Reform is designed to examine the program’s operation, consider alternative policy options, and develop a set of realistic proposals that could form the basis for reform legislation. 

By commissioning original studies from some of the nation's leading health economists and analysts, AEI's project will establish a foundation for prompt legislative action, present the major constraints that will limit the range of policy options, and develop a set of realistic proposals for fundamental reform. In particular, the project will explore whether and how Medicare can employ market-based incentives for efficiency. 

Medicare Reform Series

Markets Without Magic: How Competition Might Save Medicare By Mark V. Pauly, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania AEI Press (Washington) Publication Date: April 2008

In the second book of the AEI Medicare Reform Series, Mark V. Pauly argues that unavoidable limits on Medicare financing can best be imposed through market-based choices rather than government direction. Policymakers face a fundamental challenge: how to preserve Medicare's ability to provide its beneficiaries with financial protection and access to effective medical care while securing the advantages of competition.

For more information and how to buy the book, click here.

The Diagnosis and Treatment of Medicare By Andrew J. Rettenmaier and Thomas R. Saving, Texas A&M University AEI Press (Washington) Publication Date: April 2007

In the first book released as part of the Medicare Reform Series, Rettenmaier and Saving call for a rethinking of Medicare's financing, its benefit structure, and its future. The authors evaluate a series of previously suggested remedies as well as put forward their own "prepayment" solution.

For more information and how to buy the book, click here.

Other AEI Work on Medicare:

AEI Events

• Another Warning for Medicare?
  March 26, 2008
• Medicare’s Fiscal Future: Getting Worse? Getting Better?
  April 24, 2007
• Is There a Solution to the Medicare Physician Payment Problem?
  April 2007
• Can Government Price Negotiation Work for the Medicare Drug Benefit?
  January 2007

Short Publications

• Medicare Coverage Policies for Biologics: The Broad Gray Line
  April 2008
• Medicare Coverage Strategies: Impact of the MMA and PBMs
  April 2008
• Taking Back Our Fiscal Future
  April 2008
• Medicare Advantage Policy Fact Sheet
  March 2007
• Medicare Part D and Prescription Drug Prices Policy Fact Sheet
  January 2007
• Joseph Antos, Everything You Wanted to Know about Medicare But Were Too Confused to Ask
  The American, March/April 2007
• Joseph Antos, Alice Rivlin, "Slowing the Rising Costs of Health Care Possible"
  Albany Times-Union, April 2007
• Joseph Antos, "Ensuring Access to Affordable Drug Coverage in Medicare"
  Health Care Financing Review, February 2006

AEI Health Policy Outlooks

• Joseph Antos, "Medicare's Bad News: Is Anyone Listening?" (2008)
• Joseph Antos, "Crisis du Jour or the Real Thing?" (2006)
• Joseph Antos, "Cutting through Confusion in Part D" (2006)
• Robert Helms, "The Official Future of Medicare" (2004)

AEI's Health Policy Page

Additional Information and Data on the Medicare Program:

Boards of Trustees for Medicare

• Current and past Trustees Reports
  A detailed report on the financial operations of the Medicare program is issued each spring by the CMS Office of the Actuary under the direction of the Boards of Trustees. This year's report was released on March 25, 2008.
  
• AEI organizes and hosts an event each year to discuss the latest Medicare Trustees report. This year's event was held on March 26, 2008.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

• CMS overview of Medicare
  
• Medicare and Medicaid Statistical Supplement
  From the CMS website: "The Supplement includes charts and tables showing health expenditures for the entire U.S. population, characteristics of the covered populations, use of services, and expenditures under these programs. It is one of the most comprehensive sources of information available on health care finance in the U.S."
  
• Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder
  Search for information about Medicare prescription drug plans and Medicare health plans that cover drugs.
  

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

CBO produces studies and budget cost estimates of federal programs. CBO's Medicare publications include reports and testimony on Medicare Advantage, the drug benefit, physician payment and long-term spending projections for the Medicare program.

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

GAO studies government programs and spending and makes recommendations at the request of Congress.

• Medicare Advantage: Increased Spending Relative to Medicare Fee-for-Service May Not Always Reduce Beneficiary Out-of-Pocket Costs, February 2008 (PDF).
• Medicare Physician Payments: Medicare and Private Payment Differences for Anesthesia Services, July 2007 (PDF).
• Medicare: Thousands of Medicare Part B Providers Abuse the Federal Tax System, March 2007 (PDF).
• Medicare Spending: Preliminary Findings Regarding an Approach Focusing on Physician Practice Patterns to Foster Program Efficiency, March 2007 (PDF).

Kaiser Family Foundation

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that produces policy analysis and research on major health care issues.

• Medicare Basics: Medicare: A Primer.
  
• Kaiser Fact Sheets. Fact Sheets are brief documents of background information, data, and key trends, with updates made as new information becomes available. Fact Sheets relevant to Medicare include:
  
• Medicare and the President's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Proposal--February 2008
• Low-Income Assistance Under the Medicare Drug Benefit--February 2008
• Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit--February 2008
• Medicare Advantage--June 2007
• Medicare At-A-Glance--February 2007
  
• Kaiser Medicare Chart Book 2005--July 2005.  
  From the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation website: "This updated resource features more than 80 charts and tables with detailed information about the Medicare program and the 42 million seniors and younger people with disabilities who rely on the program for health insurance coverage. It covers a wide range of relevant data, including state-by-state information when available." 

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is an independent federal body that advises the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. The commission issues recommendations in two reports per year, released in March and June.

• MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy (March 2008)
• MedPAC Report to the Congress: Promoting Greater Efficiency in Medicare (June 2007)
• MedPAC Data Book: Healthcare Spending and the Medicare Program (June 2007)
  From the Data Book introduction on the MedPAC website: "The MedPAC Data Book provides information on national health care and Medicare spending, as well as Medicare beneficiary demographics, dual-eligible beneficiaries, quality and access in the Medicare program, and Medicare beneficiary and other payer liability. It also examines provider settings--such as hospitals or post-acute care--and presents data on Medicare spending, percent of beneficiaries using the service, number of providers, volume, length of stay, and margins, if applicable. In addition, it covers the Medicare Advantage program and prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, including Part D."