Customer Reviews

Reforming Medicare: Options, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities (Century Foundation Books (Brookings Hardcover))

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Henry Aaron and Jeanne Lambrew are two of the nation's leading experts on health policy. President Obama has named Lambrew Deputy Director of the new White House Office of Health Reform. Together Aaron and Lambrew have written an informative and accessible overview of the issues facing Medicare--the federal program that provides health coverage for older Americans and persons with disabilities. Their analysis is commendably free of the rhetoric of crisis that too often infuses discussions of the topic. They point out that Medicare's cost growth has roughly paralleled that of private health spending and that systemic reforms in the U.S. health care system would do far more to control Medicare spending than any reform in the program alone.

Medicare nevertheless confronts major long-run financial challenges and leaves gaps in benefit protection. Aaron and Lambrew explain and analyze three distinct approaches for restructuring Medicare to deal with these challenges--an improved government-run social insurance program, competing private insurance plans with government premium support, or high-deductible insurance policies coupled with health savings accounts. Their analysis is extremely well balanced and will not fully satisfy die-hard advocates of any of the approaches. My only reservation is that the options are highly stylized, whereas the most likely outcome will feature a mixture of public and private plans competing on a relatively level playing field. Overall, however, the authors have succeeded in their goal of providing a clear, even-handed guide to the debate over Medicare reform.

Very short on text; much of the book is appendices. No amazing insights here.