U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) said that updating the Medicare benefit design would usher the program into the 21st century on Wednesday during a subcommittee hearing.
Tiberi, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, convened the hearing to explore ways to strengthen and preserve Medicare.
“Another year, and another round of seniors have become Medicare eligible, navigating through the program,” Tiberi said in his opening remarks. “However, instead of more choices for these beneficiaries, this year there are fewer. Obamacare’s raid on the program and the increased regulatory burdens on providers, piled on to the outdated structure of the traditional Medicare benefit, cause today’s seniors to be inundated with an array of confusing deductibles, coinsurance and copayments with no protection from high health care costs unless they enroll in a private plan.”
Although improvements and innovations in the health care sector have transformed the delivery of care, Tiberi said, traditional Medicare has “barreled through the last 50 years” on a trajectory of increased costs and little innovation.
In order to change that trajectory, the subcommittee will look at reforms that foster patient-centered care.
“That begins with long overdue reforms to the outdated Medicare benefit,” Tiberi said. “It is time to continue these efforts, sustained by the Bipartisan Policy Center, and other bipartisan partnerships like Bowles-Simpson and Thomas-Breaux, to bring true entitlement reform to traditional Medicare. Their research, modeling, and work over the years to advance long-overdue reform has been critical.”
Those reforms would bring the fee-for service benefit up to the standards of the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, Tiberi said, which is currently used by 17 million Medicare beneficiaries.
“MA plans offer high quality, coordinated care for our seniors,” Tiberi said. “These plans also provide stability: largely stable copayments, financial protections provided by maximum out of pocket limits, and strong incentives under their benefit structures to encourage seniors to receive the most high value, efficient care possible.”
Although MA isn’t perfect, Tiberi said, its market-based roots and popularity could make it a bridge to larger entitlement reform.
“While we are encouraged by the growth in seniors choosing innovative value-based care through Medicare Advantage, we remain concerned about the viability of the overall Medicare program,” Tiberi said. “Congress must come together to find common sense policies that will ensure the solvency of the program, like combining the deductibles under Part A and Part B of Medicare and empowering seniors and providers with choice.”