Plan to Strengthen Medicare

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S PLAN TO MODERNIZE AND STRENGTHEN
MEDICARE FOR THE 21st CENTURY

June 29, 1999

Today, President Clinton unveiled his plan to modernize and strengthen the Medicare program to prepare it for the health, demographic, and financing challenges it faces in the 21st Century. This historic initiative would: (1) make Medicare more competitive and efficient; (2) modernize and reform Medicare's benefits, including the provision of a long-overdue prescription drug benefit and cost sharing protections for preventive benefits; and (3) make an unprecedented long-term financing commitment to the program that would extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund until 2027. The President called on the Congress to work with him to reach a bipartisan consensus on needed reforms this year.

MAKING MEDICARE MORE COMPETITIVE AND EFFICIENT. Since taking office, President Clinton has worked to pass and implement Medicare reforms that, coupled with the strong economy and the Administration's aggressive anti-fraud and abuse enforcement efforts, have saved hundreds of billions of dollars and helped to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund from 1999 through 2015. Building on this success, his plan:

Gives traditional Medicare new private sector purchasing and quality improvement tools. The President's proposal would make the traditional fee-for-service program more competitive through the use of market-oriented purchasing and quality improvement tools to improve care and constrain costs. It would provide new or broader authority for competitive pricing, incentives for beneficiaries to use physicians who provide high quality care at reasonable costs, coordinating care for beneficiaries with chronic illnesses, and other best-practice private sector purchasing mechanisms. Savings: $25 billion over 10 years.

Extends competition to Medicare managed care plans by establishing a "Competitive Defined Benefit" while maintaining a viable traditional program. The Competitive Defined Benefit (CDB) proposal would, for the first time, inject true price competition among managed care plans in Medicare. Plans would be paid for covering Medicare's defined benefits, including a new subsidized drug benefit, and would compete over cost and quality. Price competition would make it easier for beneficiaries to make informed choices about their plan options and would, over time, save money for both beneficiaries and the program. The CDB would do so by providing beneficiaries with 75 cents of every dollar of savings that result from choosing lower cost plans. Beneficiaries opting to stay in the traditional fee-for-service program would be able to do so without an increase in premiums. Savings: $8 billion over 10 years, starting in 2003.

MODERNIZING MEDICARE'S BENEFITS. The current Medicare benefit package does not include all the services needed to treat health problems facing the elderly and people with disabilities. The President's plan would take strong new steps to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries can access affordable prescription drug and preventive services that have become essential elements of high-quality medicine. It also would address excess utilization and waste associated with first-dollar coverage of clinical lab services and reforms the current Medigap market. Finally, it integrates the President's Medicare Buy-In proposal to provide an affordable coverage option for vulnerable Americans between the ages of 55 and 65. His plan:

Establishes a new voluntary Medicare "Part D" prescription drug benefit that is affordable and available to all beneficiaries. The historic outpatient prescription drug benefit would:

Most Medicare beneficiaries will choose this new prescription drug option because of its attractiveness and affordabilty. Because older and disabled Americans rely so heavily on medications, about 31 million beneficiaries would benefit from this coverage each year. Cost: $118 billion over 10 years, beginning in 2002.

Eliminates all cost sharing for all preventive benefits in Medicare and institutes a major health promotion education campaign. This proposal would cost $3 billion over 10 years and would:

Rationalizes cost sharing. To help pay for the new prescription drug and preventive benefits, the President's plan would save $11 billion over 10 years by rationalizing the current cost sharing requirements for Medicare by:

Reforms Medigap. The President's plan would reform private insurance policies that supplement Medicare (Medigap) by: (1) working with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to add a new lower-cost option with low copayments and to revise existing plans to conform with the President's proposals to strengthen Medicare; (2) directing the Secretary of HHS to determine the feasibility and advisability of reforms to improve supplemental cost sharing in Medicare, including a Medigap-like plan offered by the traditional Medicare program and steps to make it easier for beneficiaries to compare the cost and quality of private Medigap options; (3) providing easier access to Medigap if a beneficiary is in an HMO that withdraws from Medicare; and (4) expand the initial six month open enrollment period in Medigap to include individuals with disabilities and end stage renal disease (ESRD).

Includes the President's Medicare Buy-In proposal. The plan includes the President's proposal to offer any American between the ages of 62-65 the choice to buy into the Medicare program for approximately $300 per month if they agree to pay a small risk adjusted payment once they become eligible for traditional Medicare at age 65. Displaced workers between 55-62 who had involuntarily lost their jobs and insurance could buy in at a slightly higher premium (approximately $400). And retirees over age 55 who had been promised health care in their retirement years would be provided access to “COBRA” continuation coverage if their old firm reneged on their commitment. The $1.4 billion cost is offset in the President's FY 2000 budget.

STRENGTHENING MEDICARE'S FINANCING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. The Medicare plan the President is proposing would strengthen the program and make it more competitive and efficient. However, no amount of policy-sound savings would be sufficient to address the fact that the elderly population will double from almost 40 million today to 80 million over the next three decades. Every respected expert in the nation recognizes that additional financing will be necessary to maintain basic services and quality for any length of time. Because of this and his strong belief that the baby boom generation should not pass along its inevitable Medicare financing crisis to its children, the President has proposed that a significant portion of the surplus be dedicated to strengthening the program. Specifically, his plan:

Extends the life of the Trust Fund until at least 2027. Dedicating 15 percent of the surplus ($794 billion over 15 years) to Medicare not only assures the financial health of the Trust Fund through at least 2027, but it will also eliminate the need for future excessive cuts and radical restructuring that would be inevitable in the absence of these resources.

Responsibly finances the new prescription drug benefit through savings and a modest amount from the surplus. The new drug benefit would cost about $118 billion over 10 years. It would be fully financed by:

PRESIDENT'S PLAN TO STRENGTHEN AND MODERNIZE
MEDICARE FOR THE 21st CENTURY



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