Obama To Focus On Lowering Medicare And Medicaid Costs

Posted by | January 28, 2015 07:54 | Filed under: Contributors Good News Opinion Politics Stuart Shapiro Top Stories

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With CBO reporting that the cost of Obamacare is lower than expected, the Obama Administration has turned its attention to lowering the cost of Medicare and medical care generally.

The Obama administration announced Monday a sweeping new plan that will directly affect thousands of hospitals and doctors across the country. The federal government now plans to pay Medicare doctors more if they help patients get healthier — and less if their patients just stay sick. This would be done by tying 85 percent of all Medicare payments to outcomes by the end of 2016 — rising to 90 percent by 2018.

The idea is to move away from the broken and expensive “fee-for-service” system, which pays doctors a flat amount for every surgery and physical they perform — even if they do nothing to actually help a patient.

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.

2 responses to Obama To Focus On Lowering Medicare And Medicaid Costs

  1. Kim Serrahn January 28th, 2015 at 10:42

    Now there’s an idea. And while they’re at it can the do something about vision, dental, and drugs?

  2. Kim Serrahn January 28th, 2015 at 11:42

    Now there’s an idea. And while they’re at it can the do something about vision, dental, and drugs?

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