Medicare and Health Care

As the health care reform debate dominates discussions in Washington, The Concord Coalition is intimately involved in policy discussion inside the beltway and grassroots mobilization and education outside the beltway.

Concord on Health Care Reform

• "End Game" Fiscal Considerations for Final Health Care Reform Legislation -- Issue Brief 
• Issue briefs on the importance of legislation containing an independent "Medicare" commission for cost control -- here and here
• Facing Facts Alert about the problems with the CLASS Act provision for long-term care insurance in current reform legislation
• For the latest Tabulation blog posts on health care click here.
• The weekly Washington Budget Report (WBR) will keep you up-to-date on the very latest developments.
• For the latest Concord Coalition publications on health care click here.

Concord Coalition Co-Chairs, Former Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE), and President Peter G. Peterson, wrote a letter in October to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressing support for the attempt to tackle health care reform but offered warnings about the possibility that reform could dig the nation's fiscal hole deeper and suggested possible changes that could make the bill stronger and more fiscally responsible.

Prior to that, Senators Rudman and Kerrey penned an op-ed urging President Obama to detail cost controls in his health care plan. 

As part of the Fiscal Stewardship Project, The Concord Coalition helped establish the Iowa Committee for Value in Healthcare -- a diverse group of Iowa health care providers, purchasers, payers, patient advocates, and policy analysts. In October, the Committee released its final report (executive summary) on the five principles for value-based health care reform that need to be considered in any health care legislation, following up on their July letter to President Obama and Congress indicating the principles for value-based health care reform that should be considered in any health care legislation. (Press Release)

Our other grassroots Fiscal Advisory Councils have also discussed health care reform, and our Atlanta and Virginia Committees have participated in our exercise, "Health Care Reform Priorities: Making the Hard Choices," designed to highlight the tradeoffs and values involved in controlling health care costs. 

The Concord Coalition Series on Health Care and Medicare 

authored by budget expert David Koitz

• Issue 1 -- The Nation’s Health Care Conundrum: Where Do We Go From Here?
• Issue 2 -- The Long-Range Forecasts for Health Care Costs: Ominous and Maybe Even Optimistic
• Issue 3 -- Sowing Containment of Medicare Expenditures
• Issue 4 -- The Stubborn Rise in Medicare Physician and Contractor Expenditures
• Issue 5 -- Electronic Record Keeping, Wellness Programs, and Care Coordination -- Would They Yield Real Savings, And When?
• Issue 6 -- Looking Beyond the Administration’s 10-Year Reserve Fund: Cost Control Must Do More Than Pay For Expanded Health Insurance Coverage

Additional Resources

Statement on Health Care Reform signed by a number of budget experts including Concord executive director, Robert Bixby.   

Concord Issue Brief on Escalating Health Care Costs and the Federal Budget.

Concord Coalition Co-chairs Former Senators Bob Kerrey and Warren Rudman, President Peter G. Peterson, and executive director Robert Bixby, wrote a paper for the Opportunity 08 project which contained principles for Medicare reform.

Our Facing Facts Quarterly has discussed the problems with Medicare financing, the tax exclusion for employer provided health insurance, and numerous other health care and Medicare issues.  

For more about Medicare and the health care problem click here.