Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Report: Medical Competition Won't Cut Costs
By Vicki Kemper
Times Staff Writer
1:44 PM PST, November 3, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Competition between Medicare and private managed-care health plans will do little to control medical spending or ensure more consistent, coordinated care for the nation's elderly and disabled, an independent panel reported today.
The conclusions of an expert panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, strike at the heart of Republican arguments for more private-market competition in Medicare. But the report also undercuts the position of some liberal Democrats that Congress should add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare but otherwise leave the program much as it is.
A "hybrid model" of fee-for-service Medicare and private health plans is "far superior to much of the present debate," said Mark Schlesinger, a professor at Yale and Rutgers universities who chaired the panel.
"There is no evidence � repeat, no evidence � that private plans would reduce long-term (spending) growth rates," Schlesinger said. "For Medicare to remain a vital program, it needs to rely in equal measure" on traditional fee-for-service and managed-care plans.
And given the tendency of some private plans to "cherry pick" the healthiest patients, "there is no way to say [head-to-head competition between Medicare and private plans] will not produce a death spiral" for traditional Medicare in some parts of the country, he added.
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