Refining Medicare

In the drive to fix the country’s ailing health care system, Medicare is likely to undergo some changes.

From article by Patricia Barry, AARP Bulletin Print Edition, January 7, 2009.

In the drive to fix the country’s ailing health care system, Medicare is likely to undergo some changes. Campaign promises from President-elect Barack Obama and a white paper issued by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, suggest that some specific Medicare proposals will get serious consideration this year.

Longtime ideological battles over whether Medicare should be a public or privatized program won’t melt away overnight, but may ease, experts say. “I think if President Obama has any influence, he’ll try to steer Congress away from that,” says Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington.

At a time of rising unemployment, Medicare’s finances could worsen faster than expected because of lost revenue from payroll taxes. Yet Medicare could lead the reform field if it reins in escalating health care costs. “The policies Medicare adopts are often taken up by private payers,” says John Rother, AARP’s director of policy. “Medicare is so large that it’s the only system with enough leverage to get doctors, hospitals and other health providers to change.”

See full article at:
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/medicare/articles/refining_medicare.html

Regards
Tom Binder

Welcome to Willow Glen Seniors blog

Hello and welcome to the Willow Glen Seniors Blog. Since I do a lot of my Real Estate work with Seniors, I have developed a broad network of associates who provide services to Seniors. These services cover a very wide variety of needs for Baby Boomers and Seniors and I’ve found that most often people, who need such services, don’t know where to find them. Hopefully this blog will be a resource for exchange of information that many Seniors can use.

I will be posting information on many different subjects and will be soliciting information from experts on those subjects in which I have only little knowledge. So please feel free to comment on any of my Posts and ask any questions that might make the information more useful to you, your family, or your friends.

In addition, I have included links to some additional web sites, Senior Sites, that might be a primary source of information for you. If you have any suggestions for the Willow Glen Seniors blog, please let me know.

Best regards and have a great day.
Tom