Putting Medicare consumers in charge : lessons from the FEHBP / Walton Francis.

Author
Francis, Walton [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Washington, D.C. : AEI Press, ©2009.
Description
xi, 309 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks RA412.3 .F73 2009 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    AEI studies on Medicare reform [More in this series]
    Summary note
    • In an unplanned natural experiment between two fundamentally different program designs, the federal government has operated two major health insurance programs side by side for nearly fifty years: Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Until a recent government decision to place it in the same tax-preferred status as most private-insurer health insurance, the FEHBP consistently outperformed Medicare in cost control; it still outperforms Medicare in service, benefit generosity, fraud prevention, and protection from catastrophically high health care expenses. In Putting Medicare Consumers in Charge: Lessons from the FEHBP, Walton Francis analyzes the successes and failures of both programs and proposes reforms that will revive FEHBP and improve Medicare.
    • Francis contends that the most needed reform for Medicare and the FEHBP is to reduce the tax preference for unlimited employee health care spending, a subsidy that swamps market incentives and engenders massive waste in the FEHBP and throughout the health care system. Although the debate on health reform has focused on tax subsidies as a source of financing, reducing the tax preference will save money by creating incentives for prudent shopping and prudent spending - what the Congressional Budget Office recently called "bending the curve" of runaway cost growth. Francis also considers redesigning health insurance to guarantee consumers coverage for needed medicines while offering them incentives to spend less on unneeded care. He finds that plan competition in Medicare has contributed substantially to reducing its cost, but is at risk from proposed budget cuts that may reduce this kind of plan competition.
    • This careful analysis of Medicare and the FEHBP is an invaluable guide for policymakers considering major health reforms while juggling the twin problems of runaway health care spending and looming Medicare insolvency. (Publisher).
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Contents
    • Medicare
    • The FEHBP
    • Risk selection
    • Cost control
    • Premiums and benefits
    • Access, fraud control, and governance.
    ISBN
    • 9780844742830
    • 084474283X
    LCCN
    2009033002
    OCLC
    318421654
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