Let’s Put the Power Back in Patients’ Hands

Medicare, enacted along with Medicaid in 1965, is 50 years old. The program, which provides health care services to seniors and some disabled, has successfully provided its enrollees’ core hospital and physicians’ coverage and a strong measure of financial security. However, fiscal and demographic problems that are inherent in its outdated structure threaten seniors’ future access to quality care and impose massive burdens on taxpayers.

Nothing is inevitable, but Congress will need to tackle these issues head-on if Medicare is to endure for another 50 years. Congress should look to the successful competitive models in Medicare to move toward a future that will ensure security for seniors while also protecting taxpayers.

Total Medicare spending will jump from $613 billion in 2014 to more than $1.2 trillion by 2024. As a share of the general economy, Medicare spending will increase from 3.5% of GDP in 2015 to 6.3% by 2040. Today, seniors’ premiums account for just 13% of total Medicare funding. By 2040, seniors’ premiums will increase to 17% of total funding, with taxpayers funding 22% of the cost of their payroll taxes and almost 61% out of general revenues.

“We have seen the regulations of Obamacare ruin the U.S. health system. Decision on your health are not being made by you and your doctor, they are being made by bureaucrats. It is time to fix the healthcare system and return our health decisions to us.”

– Dr. George Flinn
Conservative Republican
U.S. Senate Candidate

A Real Solution

President Donald Trump says he wants health reform that will be better than Obamacare, better than what we had before Obamacare, and better than the Democrats’ Medicare for All. And he’s not alone. Numerous surveys show that health reform remains a top priority for Americans, who are concerned about high costs, access, and choice.

To address these problems, health reforms should focus on making it as easy as possible for people to access innovations such as:

• Personal and portable health insurance
• Round-the-clock medical care
• Access to telemedicine
• Access to Centers of Excellence
• Patient power
• Part D restructuring​
• Making medicines affordable for seniors: reforms to Medicare payment practices

Learn more here.