Our Congress can change Medicare if it is serious about real savings.
"Private plans are poised to expand their participation in Medicare if Congress acts," Ms. Ignagni said.
It creates an advisory board to cut costs from Medicare if spending rises above a set rate.
With Medicare, if individuals couldn't pay the extra cost, they'd have to settle for less complete coverage and fewer benefits.
Gail: I think the health care plan will be able to wrestle down some of the cost of Medicare, if the Republicans will stop yelling about death panels.
(There are harder-to-answer questions, like how much it might save Medicare if, earlier in life, a person had access to preventive care through a spouse's insurance).
For example, groups of doctors can share in the savings to Medicare if they spend less money and improve the quality of their patients' care.
Number-crunchers reach for the calculators, tap in the demographic assumptions of ageing baby-boomers and declare that Medicare, if unreformed, will go bankrupt in 2001.
This is an outside commission of 15 appointees who will, beginning in 2014, identify cuts to Medicare if the plan exceeds a preset rate for growth.
