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 bill recently passed by the House—H.R. 3962, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009—and the bill before the Senate—H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—include 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)

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Analysis of HR 3200 and Senate Finance Committee Chairman’s Mark – October 2009 (.pdf)