The President's Medicare Proposal

Last week, the Bush administration released a proposal to

1. raise the Medicare premiums for wealthy Americans enrolled in the prescription drug program;
2. reform medical liability laws; and
3. introduce "value-based health care" measures to improve Medicare efficiency.

The proposal was issued in compliance with the "trigger" provision of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. This provision states that the President must present a plan when, for two consecutive years, the Medicare program's trustees estimate that funds taken from general revenues will exceed 45 percent of Medicare's total funding in any of the next seven years.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget strongly urges Congress to use this as an opportunity to develop a plan to reduce Medicare's long-term shortfall...

For the full text of the CRFB's release, please see the PDF attached below.