1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
-
-
Email Event
-
-
Online registration for this event is closed. Walk-in registrations will be accepted.
Cost-saving proposals for Medicare have become a key element of paying for health care reform. But in discussions about Medicare reform, it is important to look at another federally run program that has operated side-by-side with it for nearly
Listen to Audio
play
pause
Download Audio as MP3
fifty years: the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Until a recent government decision to place it in the same tax-preferred status as most private-insurer health insurance, the FEHBP consistently outperformed Medicare in cost control. It still outperforms Medicare in service, benefit generosity, fraud prevention, and protection from catastrophically high health care expenses. What can be learned from the FEHBP?
At this event, noted health insurance expert Walton J. Francis--author of an annual best-selling consumer guide explaining and comparing the various health plans offered to federal employees--will present his new book, Putting Medicare Consumers in Charge: Lessons from the FEHBP (AEI Press, 2009). In it, Mr. Francis analyzes the successes and failures of both federal programs and proposes reforms that will revive the FEHBP and improve Medicare. The most needed reform for Medicare and the FEHBP, according to Mr. Francis, is to reduce the tax preference for unlimited employee health care spending, a subsidy that engenders massive waste in the FEHBP and throughout the health care system. Although the debate on health reform has focused on tax subsidies as a source of financing, reducing the tax preference will save money by creating incentives for prudent shopping and prudent spending. AEI scholar Joseph Antos, Heritage scholar Robert E. Moffitt, and former Medicare administrator Gail Wilensky will discuss Mr. Francis's ideas in the context of the current health care debate. AEI'S Robert B. Helms will moderate.
| 8:45 a.m. | Registration | |
| 9:00 | Presenter: | Walton J. Francis |
| Discussants: | Joseph Antos, AEI | |
| Robert E. Moffit, Heritage Foundation | ||
| Gail Wilensky, Project HOPE | ||
| Moderator: | Robert B. Helms, AEI | |
Joseph Antos is the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at AEI. He is also a commissioner of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, a health adviser to the Congressional Budget Office, and an adjunct professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining AEI, Mr. Antos was assistant director for Health and Human Resources at the Congressional Budget Office. At AEI, Mr. Antos's research focuses on the economics of health policy, including Medicare reform, health insurance regulation, and the uninsured. He has written and spoken extensively on the Medicare drug benefit and has led a team of experienced independent actuaries and cost estimators in a study to evaluate various proposals to extend health coverage to the uninsured. Mr. Antos also writes for AEI's Health Policy Outlook series.
Walton J. Francis is a self-employed economist and policy analyst, expert in analysis and evaluation of public programs. He pioneered the systematic comparison of health insurance plans from a consumer perspective as primary author of CHECKBOOK's Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees. This annual online publication rates plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which is often cited as a model for health reform. He has testified before Congress on Medicare reform and FEHBP reform and has worked as a consultant to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Robert E. Moffit is the director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. He has over two decades of professional experience in Washington, focused heavily on federal health policy. He served in President Ronald Reagan's administration, where he was appointed deputy assistant secretary for legislation at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Before his service at HHS, he was appointed by the Reagan administration as an assistant director of the Office of Personnel Management, with responsibilities for federal personnel policy and congressional relations. After federal service, Mr. Moffit was a senior associate of the Capitol Resources Group International, where he assisted clients primarily in the field of federal health care policy. He joined the Heritage Foundation in 1991. Mr. Moffit has appeared on ABC News, NBC News, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. He has also been published in professional journals such as Health Affairs and the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.
Gail Wilensky is an economist and a senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation. Most recently, she was president of the Defense Health Board. She has cochaired the Department of Defense task force on the Future of Military Health Care. She has been a commissioner both for the President's Commission on the Care of Wounded Warriors and the World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. From 1990 to 1992, Ms. Wilensky was the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In the early 1990s, she served as deputy assistant to President George H. W. Bush for policy development. From 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission, and from 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
