Bipartisan Policy Center proposes deficit-reducing health care reforms

A “modernized, integrated Medicare system” along with tax reforms could achieve $560 billion in federal deficit reductions over the next decade, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, DC-based think tank that actively promotes bipartisanship to address key challenges facing the United States.

The report, authored by former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, MD; former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and former Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin, PhD, resulted from a year of research and discussions with stakeholders.

The report contains more than 50 integrated recommendations for improved health care affordability, including four key recommendations:

Improve and enhance Medicare to incent quality and care coordination
Reform tax policy and clarify consolidation rules to encourage greater efficiency and competition
Prioritize quality, prevention and wellness
Incent and empower states to improve care and constrain costs through delivery, payment, workforce and liability reform

“Physicians and other health care professionals responding to flawed incentives in our fee-for-service system are penalized for spending more time with patients yet rewarded for ordering unnecessary and sometimes dangerous tests and procedures,” said Daschle during a news conference introducing the group’s findings. “There are stand-alone policies in our package that I and my colleagues would probably not support outside the context of this package; that’s what compromise is all about; that’s what reaching consensus is all about.”

The report proposes offering Medicare beneficiaries three coverage options: remain in fee-for-service; enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan; or enroll in new “Medicare Networks” within traditional Medicare. But these networks would “incentivize high quality, more cost-effective care for providers” while improving care coordination and lowering costs.

“This report is not just another compilation of a variety of options … it is fully integrated so that when it’s in effect … doctors will be using the new system and if we are right, they will be happier … they can make our citizenry better, make their health better, that’s what we want — all of that — and save some money so we can save the country,” said Frist, referring to the impact on the budget deficit.

The proposal also targets “the current regressive and inflationary approach to subsidizing employer-provided health insurance” while promoting prevention, wellness, transparency and cost-containment incentives to states.

“The underlying premise of this project is that fee-for-service reimbursement and the fragmented nature of health care delivery provide incentives for providers to deliver more services, more quantity, more things they can do for you … and fail to encourage quality and value and outcomes and coordination,” Rivlin said.