Medicare Means-Testing: A Skeptical View

In response to claims that Medicare is unsustainable over time, Mark Pauly has suggested a means-testing approach as a solution to its financing problems. To obtain enough resources in this way, however, it is necessary to ask middle-class beneficiaries to pay much more for their health care, by sub...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 23; pp. W4 - W4560
Main Author Moon, Marilyn
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chevy Chase The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.07.2004
Subjects
Beneficiaries
Cost control
Cost shifting
Economic development
Expenditures
Financing
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
Health care expenditures
Health care policy
Health services
Insurance coverage
Insurance premiums
Low income groups
Means testing
Medicare
Middle class
Social classes
Society
Taxes
Test methods
Vouchers
United States > US
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Summary:In response to claims that Medicare is unsustainable over time, Mark Pauly has suggested a means-testing approach as a solution to its financing problems. To obtain enough resources in this way, however, it is necessary to ask middle-class beneficiaries to pay much more for their health care, by subjecting them to vouchers. The spending limits Pauly suggests are arbitrary and would likely place an untenable burden on beneficiaries with modest incomes. A better approach to financing would be to examine the ability of both taxpayers and beneficiaries to pay in the future - likely resulting in a different outcome. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.W4.558