Description

First published in 1997, this volume approaches the controversial issue of Medicare and its future. First passed in 1965 to aid payments for elderly and disabled medical care, the costs had ballooned in the 1990s, asking questions about how to improve its efficiency. An original goal of this book was to contextualise Medicare within the anticipated comprehensive restructuring of American healthcare. With Medicare 10% of the federal budget at the original time of publication, Marilyn Moon now takes another look at Medicare and discusses how the budget could be tightened without threatening the function of Medicare, with an emphasis on better targeting. In particular, the novel issue of means testing is explored. Having researched Medicare since 1981, Moon recasts her book by discussing issues including Medicare's context, ensuring access, containing costs, the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, the potential for marginal changes, reducing costs, expanding Medicare and ultimately how Medicare should look to change.