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Competition Works for Medicare Part D
Opinion -A study of the Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Program, also known as Part D, reveals free-market competition is keeping drug prices down more effectively than price controls in Medicare's other segments. -
For Some, Medicare Drug Plan Pays Off
Opinion -When Lacey P. Green went to his neighborhood pharmacy to pick up five prescriptions, he thought he heard the pharmacist say he owed $250, but he was wrong. The cost, with his new Medicare prescription drug card, was just $50. -
Medicare Rx Costs Below Estimates, Thanks to Private-Sector Competition
Opinion -Debate raged last year over the expected cost of the new Part D Medicare prescription drug benefit. Now that dueling economic models have been replaced by actual experience, results are in and the news is better than expected. -
Medicare Benefit Cuts Demand for Canadian Rx
Opinion -According to the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA), the new Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, launched January 1, has alleviated U.S. demand for cheap drugs from Canada. CIPA found some U.S. -
Medicare’s Hidden Costs Extensive, Expensive, Report Says
Opinion -In January, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance released a study, "Medicare's Hidden Administrative Costs: A Comparison of Medicare and the Private Sector." The following article and sidebar are adapted from that study. -
Drug Costs Drop Early in New Medicare Rx Program
Opinion -The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in February Medicare's new drug coverage will have significantly lower premiums and lower costs to federal taxpayers and states than expected, the result of stronger-than-expected competition -
AARP, Pharmacists Continue to Support New Medicare Drug Benefit
Opinion -The new Medicare drug benefit has been widely described in terms of "problems," "woes," "glitches," "growing pains," and "chaos"--all within the first two weeks of 2006. -
Medicare Drug Benefit: Patience and Persistence
Opinion -Since the Medicare drug benefit enrollment period began on November 15, 2005, everywhere seniors turn they find newspapers and airwaves filled with warnings that the program is overwhelmingly confusing. -
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Analysis: Senate Budget Bill Would Increase Medicare Red Tape
Opinion -New reimbursement reporting and compliance rules for physicians participating in Medicare went into effect on January 1 as part of the budget reconciliation bill that passed the House on December 19. -
Commentary: Lawmakers Call for Medicare Drug Entitlement Delay
Opinion -Delay the Medicare drug benefit: That's what Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Rep. Jeff Flake (R- AZ), Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), and several other members of the U.S. House and Senate urged their colleagues and taxpayers to do before the end of 2005. -
Bringing Health Savings Accounts to Medicare
Opinion -Medicare is in crisis and to date little has been done to address it. Old strategies, such as cutting provider payments, will do little to solve the problem, and may make it worse by driving the best physicians out of Medicare altogether. -
Americans Call for Loosening of Medicare Restrictions
Opinion -At a Washington briefing on June 21 hosted by The Galen Institute (of which the author is president), Dr. -
Analysis: Social Security and Medicare Are Unsustainable
Opinion -In 2011, the first group of baby boomers in the United States will reach the age of 65. -
CMS Issues Final Rules for 2006 Medicare Drug Benefit
Opinion -The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued final rules for the new 2006 Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D) and the new Regional PPOs under Medicare Advantage (Part C). The regulations run about 2,000 pages. -
Bush Threatens to Veto Controls on Medicare Drug Spending
Opinion -Two days after Bush administration officials released new cost estimates for the Medicare prescription drug program, President George W. Bush threatened to make the first veto of his presidency against efforts to control the program's costs. -
Conference Calls for Changes in Medicare/Medicaid
Opinion -The second annual World Health Care Congress convened in Washington, DC on January 30-February 1 with common messages echoing through the three days of meetings: increase quality, reward the best, increase communication, decrease costs, and reform -
Obesity Considered ‘Disease’ for Medicare Purposes
Opinion -U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced on July 15 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would remove from its Medicare coverage manual language saying obesity is not an illness. -
A Guide to the New Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
Opinion -The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in late 2003 is like a giant sequoia: You can't get your arms around it all at once. -
Medicare, Social Security Need Big Changes for Young to Benefit
Opinion -Medicare is running out of money--faster than anyone predicted. For the first time ever this year, the fund that pays seniors' hospital bills will pay out more than it takes in from payroll taxes. -
Medicare Will Be Bankrupt by 2019
Opinion -Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)--the 20-year-old watchdog group dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government--on March 25 criticized national leaders for "overseeing the fiscal deterioration of the Medicare -
Liberals’ Medicare Reform Proposal Is Just Plain Politics
Opinion -On February 5, two U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), introduced legislation allowing the federal government to directly negotiate drug prices with private drug companies. -
Medicare HMO Premiums Plummet
Opinion -Millions of seniors enrolled in private-sector Medicare HMOs are getting a big surprise: lower health insurance premiums and increased benefits. -
Latest Medicare Reform Proposal Is ‘Just Plain Politics,’ Think Tank Says
Opinion -CHICAGO--Today two U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) plan to introduce legislation allowing the federal government to directly negotiate drug prices with private drug companies.
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