Medicare Savings in Perspective: A Comparison of 2009 Health Reform Legislation and Other Laws in the Last 15 Years
Although Medicare is not the main focus of current health reform legislation,
the primary bill under consideration in the House—H.R. 3200, America’s
Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009—and the proposal before the Senate
Finance Committee, known as the Chairman's Mark, includes a number of provisions
that would affect Medicare program expenditures.
This policy brief
considers the proposed 10-year Medicare savings and increased spending in the
two proposals in the context of other laws enacted during the last 15 years that
have resulted in significant changes to the Medicare program. The analysis
calculates net changes in 10-year projected Medicare expenditures estimated at
the time each law was enacted as a share of the contemporaneous projected
Medicare baseline spending. The results help to illustrate the relative
magnitude of each law’s effect on Medicare expenditures as projected at the time
of enactment.
Policy Brief (.pdf)
