Proposed Medicare 'Reforms'
Will Hurt Seniors, Consumers;

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 -- The following was released today by the Cato Institute: Congress and President Bush are currently debating whether or not to add a new prescription drug benefit to the $221 billion-a-year Medicare program. This new benefit could end up giving American seniors fewer choices at higher prices for prescription drugs. However, most Americans, and most seniors, know little or nothing about Medicare and the efforts being made to reform it.

Sue A. Blevins, author of a new book from the Cato Institute, "Medicare's Midlife Crisis," and president of the Institute for Health Freedom, argues that the growth of Medicare has forced seniors into a regime that restricts their health care choices, jeopardizes the doctor-patient relationship and threatens to invade medical privacy. Blevins shows how we reached our current situation regarding escalating health care costs and burdensome regulations.

According to Blevins, Medicare has "undoubtedly reached a midlife crisis and is going to require a major overhaul during the next decade. The fiscal squeeze on Medicare will be aggravated further by growing demands for more comprehensive medical services, including prescription drugs and preventative care." Blevins continues by saying that growing political pressures and spending commitments will force the program into debt.

Over the next decade, Medicare expenditures are expected to more than double. Yet, fewer workers will be able to cover the costs of the growing senior population. As a result, seniors will face more out-of-pocket health care costs.

Sooner or later, Medicare will affect nearly every American. "The current Medicare mandatory enrollment policy gives the federal government the final say on hospital and doctor fees, and it effectively prevents seniors from contracting privately with the doctors of their choice." The bottom line, according to Blevins, is that Americans "should not be forced into a single-payer government health care system," like Medicare. Such a program limits health care options and prevents seniors from spending money on the treatments of their choice.

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The Cato Institute is a non-partisan public policy research foundation dedicated to broadening policy debate consistent with the traditional American principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.