MARKETS AND MEDICARE

According to the trustees, Medicare's unfunded liability is $74 trillion -- five times that of Social Security. According to the Congressional Budget Office, health care spending is on a course that could crowd out all other government programs. How can we reduce the costs of Medicare?

• Reward doctors and other health care providers who raise quality and lower costs through improving patient communication and access to care, and by teaching patients how to be better managers of their own care. [*]
• Provide beneficiaries who have chronic diseases with training, easier access to information, and the ability to purchase and use in-house monitors, which would help them manage their own care as well or better than conventional physician care and at lower costs.
• Revise the reimbursement system to remove the many barriers to innovations in using those treatments efficiently and effectively.

These are just a few of the many things that can be done to control the rising costs of Medicare while improving care and health at the same time. These steps will not be enough by themselves to put Medicare and our health care system on a sustainable course, but timely action by the president and Congress could make a big difference.

[*example: I've had a half dozen tests conducted as a result of a recent MS 'flare' - the results of which I've been notified by email are available for my reading at Kaiser's web-based health management system - after which I email my doctor directly asking for English please, and he explains them to me. I.e., much better care at much reduced time expense on both our parts. Even a ship the size of Kaiser turns, in the private sector.]

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