Big changes coming in Medicare payments, cost sharing methods.(Medicare Costs)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Eli Research, Inc.

Health costs keep rising, the large babyboom generation is approaching retirement, and Americans don't want to pay higher taxes. How to keep Medicare from foundering on these shoals.?

For now, there's more talk than action. For the future, however, expect big changes, including tax increases, and don't ever think you'll hear the end of talk about costs, costs, costs.

Some recent expert predictions--echoed by analysts from the left, right, and center--include the following:

* Remember how hard we worked to ensure that every Medicare provider who performed the same services got paid the same? Well, throw that two-decade-long effort out the window, says Project Hope Senior Fellow Gail Wilensky, who directed Medicare and Medicaid in the administration of the first President Bush.

It's time to get ready for the new paradigm: ensuring...

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