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Session: The Medicare Modernization Act: And The Financial Future of Medicare
3125.0: Monday, November 8, 2004: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Oral
The Medicare Modernization Act: And The Financial Future of Medicare
The Medicare Modernization Act includes key provisions that may fundamentally undermine the traditional Medicare program. Over a 10 year period, it will pay private insurers to cover people on Medicare $46 billion more than it would cost to cover the same people with traditional Medicare. This overpayment is intended to increase the number of Medicare beneficiaries private insurers will cover. The MMA has a provision to cap federal spending on Medicare and force beneficiaries to absorb new costs with benefit cuts and higher co-pays, deductibles, and shares of premium. The provision is likely to be implemented in 2009. As a result, there may soon be large number of uninsured seniors in the US. The MMA may also accelerate the decline of Medicare’s financial solvency at such a rate that it may contribute to large cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals and other components of the US health care delivery system. This session will explore how some of these provisions of the MMA can be expected to affect the traditional Medicare program and those beneficiaries and health care institutions that heavily depend on it.
Learning Objectives: Better understand the impact of the Medicare Modernization Act on traditional Medicare beneficiaries and US health care institutions.
Moderator(s):Ramon Castellblanch, PhD
10:30 AMMedicare Modernization Act cap on federal spending for Medicare  [ Recorded presentation ]
Bill Vaughan
10:50 AMMedicare payments to hospitals and other components of the US health care delivery system
Sue Nelson (invited)
11:10 AMOverpayments to private insurers and its impact on traditional Medicare  [ Recorded presentation ]
Ramon Castellblanch, PhD
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organized by:Health Equity and Public Hospitals Caucus
CE Credits:Health Education (CHES), Nursing

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA