The Future of Medicare

“The Future of Medicare”
With California Nurses Association
Public Policy Director Michael Lighty.
Saturday, October 20, 10 AM to 12 Noon
Mechanics Institute
57 Post Street (betw. Market & Kearny)
# 6, 9, 71, 2, and 3 buses, 2 doors from Montgomery BART/Metro
map at http://tinyurl.com/9jn7gcf

Medicare is at a crossroads. Although Medicare accounts for only one-fifth of national healthcare spending, Medicare is the target of the campaign to restrain health care spending. As the election approaches, major parties propose different methods to clamp down on Medicare spending, while leaving in place the high profits that drive up costs across the entire healthcare sector. Medicare spending clamps are built into the Obama plan, and the Ryan plan, and are aimed at reducing payments to both patients and healthcare providers such as doctors and hospitals.

Other spending containment strategies include payment for services based on performance rather than volume, penalties for “inefficient” hospitals, new kinds of managed care, payment bundling, and comparative effectiveness studies. These other strategies have the potential to improve or harm patient outcomes depending on how they are implemented. The weeks between the 2012 election and the 2013 Sequestration cuts could be crucial for Medicare’s future.

Michael Lighty, a nationally recognized health policy advocate and expert, is Public Policy Director of the California Nurses Association, and manages CNA’s national effort for single-payer healthcare reform. He is on the Advisory Board of Progressive Democrats of America, and is on the Board of Healthcare Now!

Co-sponsored by CARA, OWL, SF Gray Panthers, and Single Payer Now.