Prefunding medicare without individual accounts

Health Affairs

Volumn 19, Issue 5, 2000, Pages 72-83

  Seidman, Laurence S ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGED; COST; ECONOMICS; FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT; FORECASTING; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HUMAN; MEDICARE; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; POLITICS; RETIREMENT; REVIEW; UNITED STATES;

AGED; FINANCING, GOVERNMENT; FORECASTING; HEALTH CARE REFORM; HUMANS; MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS; MEDICARE; POLITICS; RETIREMENT; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0034268119     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.19.5.72     Document Type: Article

References (8)

1. In "Prefunding Medicare," American Economic Review (May 1999): 222-227, Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard and president of the National Bureau of Economic Research, writes: "The fact that most of the aged cannot finance their care through a current employment relationship or out of other retirement income does not imply that the government must finance that care through a pay-as-you-go tax-financed program that will become inordinately expensive and burdensome in the future. The natural life-cycle alternative is to have individuals accumulate funds during their working years with which to finance their health care in retirement. Now that the institutional structure for universal personal retirement accounts to supplement Social Security retirement pensions may become a reality, it is not difficult to imagine how a parallel structure would work to supplement or replace the pay-as-you-go financing of Medicare." Similarly, economists Andrew Rettenmaier and Thomas Saving present the case for prefunding Medicare through individual accounts in "Converting Medicare to Prepaid Health Insurance," in Medicare in the Twenty-first Century, ed. R. Helms (Washington: AEI Press, 1999), 41-66.
2. M. Feldstein, "The Missing Piece in Policy Analysis," American Economic Review (May 1996): 1-14.
3. H.J. Aaron and R.D. Reischauer, Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate (New York: Century Foundation, 1998); and L. Seidman, Funding Social Security: A Strategic Alternative (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
4. H.J. Aaron and R.D. Reischauer, Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate (New York: Century Foundation, 1998); and L. Seidman, Funding Social Security: A Strategic Alternative (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
5. On retaining the current system, see T. Marmor and J. Oberlander, "Rethinking Medicare Reform," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 52-68. On a premium-support system, see H.J. Aaron and R.D. Reischauer, "The Medicare Reform Debate: What Is the Next Step?" Health Affairs (Winter 1995): 8-30; and "Rethinking Medicare Reform' Needs Rethinking," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 69-71.
6. On retaining the current system, see T. Marmor and J. Oberlander, "Rethinking Medicare Reform," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 52-68. On a premium-support system, see H.J. Aaron and R.D. Reischauer, "The Medicare Reform Debate: What Is the Next Step?" Health Affairs (Winter 1995): 8-30; and "Rethinking Medicare Reform' Needs Rethinking," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 69-71.
7. On retaining the current system, see T. Marmor and J. Oberlander, "Rethinking Medicare Reform," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 52-68. On a premium-support system, see H.J. Aaron and R.D. Reischauer, "The Medicare Reform Debate: What Is the Next Step?" Health Affairs (Winter 1995): 8-30; and "Rethinking Medicare Reform' Needs Rethinking," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1998): 69-71.
8. I have made a similar proposal for Social Security. See L. Seidman, "A Social Security Trust Fund Clarification Act," Tax Notes (27 December 1999): 1695-1697.