SPOTLIGHT: Rethinking Medicare reform

Veteran health economist Ted Marmor and his fellow Yale colleague Jerry Mashaw make an impassioned defense of Medicare and Social Security in Health Affairs. They argue that attempts to "reform" Medicare and Social Security are attacks on the bedrock of social insurance, and are usually proposed by people who disapprove of social insurance. Marmor and Mashaw point out that social insurance programs are actually conservative in nature, as they were introduced to prevent state socialism and exist only where markets have failed. They also claim that notions that Medicare will inevitably run out of money in its current state also misdiagnose the program's problems, as Medicare costs have grown less steeply than private health costs. Release

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