Medicare for the 21st Century

The federal government currently spends about 15 percent of its budget on Medicare, and the program faces substantial growth in beneficiaries as baby boomers continue to age into eligibility.

A June 3 briefing, “Medicare for the 21st Century,” addressed the sustainability of Medicare under its current design. A panel of Medicare experts reviewed proposals for change and provided perspectives on modernizing Medicare to improve the efficiency of the program, improve the quality of care and reduce overall health care costs.

Can Medicare be sustained in a climate of high and rising health care costs? Are there proposals that might improve quality of care while containing costs? Can consumers and patients be more engaged in making high value health care decisions given the right information? Under various new proposals, who will save money – beneficiaries, the federal government? Might Medicare reform have a spillover effect on Medicaid? What about private insurance companies?

A distinguished panel of experts addressed these and related questions.

• Karen Davis, director, Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president, American Action Forum, former director of the Congressional Budget Office
• Neera Tanden, president, Center for American Progress

Ed Howard of the Alliance and Stu Guterman, vice president and executive director of the Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System, moderated the discussion.

This forum took place on Monday, June 3 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G-50.

Contact: Marilyn Serafini mserafini@allhealth.org 202/789-2300

Speaker Presentations

Karen Davis Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Stu Guterman Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Event Details

Agenda (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Speaker Biographies (Adobe Acrobat PDF)