Modernizing Medicare's Benefit Structure

Improving the Medicare benefit package should help to put the program back on a firm basis. Improvement would change the perception that the benefit package is outmoded. By covering all the basic services needed for acute care, delivery of care would be less likely to be distorted regardless of whether that delivery takes place in traditional Medicare or a private managed care plan. It could reduce reliance on a creaky system of supplementation that payors, beneficiaries, former employers and state governments are finding increasingly difficult to sustain. The government cannot avoid devoting more resources to the program, and the costs should be split between beneficiaries and taxpayers based on an informed debate regarding who is most able to pay.