Salt Lake City, January 15, 2019—Today, Leavitt Partners released “Medicare: Drifting Toward Disaster,” a white paper authored by former Utah Governor and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. The paper discusses how to achieve bipartisan reform in Medicare. With the hospital insurance fund expected to reach insolvency by 2026, the paper sounds the alarm that without Congressional action, the Medicare program threatens to lead to unsustainable health care costs, bitter inter-generational conflict, and widespread loss of coverage.
Governor Leavitt leverages the experiences and knowledge he gained serving as HHS Secretary and as a trustee of the Medicare Trust Fund to offer a way for policymakers to find a “partisan eclipse” that allows both parties to work together toward the mutual aim of making the Medicare program sustainable for future generations. Despite our current environment of hyper-partisanship, a partisan eclipse is possible when both parties experience uncertainty and fear that theirs may be the party in power when Medicare insolvency occurs.
One area of Medicare reform that already enjoys bipartisan support is the shift away from reimbursing physicians and other providers based on the volume of services provided to reimbursing based on the value of the care provided. The continued spread and adoption of these value-based payment models, the paper advocates, is one way to bring more sustainability to Medicare. The paper ends with a call to action for the United States to continue to prosper by proactively addressing Medicare reform, instead of allowing the program to drift toward disaster.
Read the white paper here.
About Leavitt Partners:
Leavitt Partners is a health care intelligence business. The firm helps clients successfully navigate the evolving role of value in health care by informing, advising, and convening industry leaders on value market analytics, alternative payment models, federal strategies, insurance market insights, and alliances. Through its family of businesses, the firm provides investment support, data and analytics, member-based alliances, and direct services to clients to support decision-making strategies in the value economy. For more information please visit www.LeavittPartners.com.