U.S. Reps. Reid Ribble (R-WI) and Mark Pocan (R-WI) presented the Long-Term SCORE Act to fellow lawmakers on Tuesday.
The legislation, also identified as the Long-Term Studies of Comprehensive Outcomes and Returns to the Economy Act or H.R. 282, focuses on the efficiency of Medicare by zeroing in on the causes of the diseases that are most prevalent in Medicare cases.
The act proposes studying the reasons and possible corrections to what many see as a major Medicare concern – the fact that more than 75 percent of Medicare expenses go toward treating chronic diseases, many of which are preventable.
Backers of the bill agree that minor investments in lowering the frequency of such diseases now could result in huge improvements in people’s lives and tremendous savings of taxpayer dollars in the longer view.
Current practices require only a 10-year outlook for budgeting. The Long-Term SCORE Act addresses this problem by creating a separate office of long-term scoring at the Congressional Budget Office that could provide cost estimates for as far as 50 years into the future.
“When you are budgeting for costs of chronic and lifelong health conditions, a 10-year window just doesn’t give us the whole picture, Ribble said. “Our legislation would help provide the necessary tools for Congress to make smarter and more long-term investments in federal health and prevention programs.”