The Century Foundation Releases "A Place at the Table"

Feb 19, 2003

Authors: admin

Publisher(s): The Century Foundation

Contact:
Christy Hicks, 212-452-7723

The Century Foundation Releases "A Place at the Table"
A Report on Women's Needs and Medicare Reform

Feb. 20, 2003, Washington, D.C.-Medicare reform is back on the national agenda. While this issue is important to all Americans, women have an especially big stake in the current debate.

President Bush is promoting the idea of reforming Medicare through encouraging greater competition among private health plans. A new report, A Place at the Table: Women's Needs and Medicare Reform, sponsored by The Century Foundation and the Institute for Women's Policy Research, points out that these proposals could put women at substantial risk. This report, written by Marilyn Moon with Pamela Herd, warns that if these reforms were implemented without proper safeguards, beneficiaries - particularly older women -- may face steeply higher out-of-pocket costs.

A Place at the Table points out how women, who make up three-fifths of all Medicare beneficiaries, are disproportionately affected by Medicare's current structure. They are more vulnerable because of their lower incomes, higher levels of chronic illness, and greater likelihood of either being a caregiver or living alone. The authors show how reforms could help older women and disabled beneficiaries, tackling issues such as the affordability, comprehensiveness, quality, and stability of the federal health insurance program.

Moon and Herd recommend incremental and gradual reform in Medicare. They call for a mixed system that retains traditional, fee-for-service Medicare and expands the role for private plans incrementally. The authors discuss including outpatient prescription drug coverage in Medicare and limiting out-of-pocket costs, the "two vital issues" of reform. Improving Medicare's payment system, coordinating the treatment of chronic illness, and adding educational and informational support are also especially important to meeting women's needs.

A Place at the Table is the latest of many Century Foundation books and reports that address issues connected to the aging of the American population. Other recent titles include Medicare Tomorrow: The Report of the Century Foundation Task Force on Medicare Reform; Joseph White's False Alarm; Charles Morris's Too Much of a Good Thing?; Eliot Fishman's Running in Place: How the Medicaid Model Falls Short, and What to Do About It and two entries in the Century Foundation's Basics Series-Medicare Reform and Social Security Reform. For more information about The Century Foundation's work in health care reform, please visit www.tcf.org or www.medicarewatch.org.

The Institute for Women's Policy Research is dedicated to informing and stimulating the debate on public policy issues of critical importance to women and their families. IWPR has produced numerous papers and reports on women's health issues. IWPR recently released a report, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, analyzing the impact of socioeconomic status and the health of low-income women. IWPR has long supported research on social insurance issues, including Medicare and Social Security. For additional information, please visit www.iwpr.org.

Marilyn Moon is a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. Pamela Herd is a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. For more information on this report, please contact Christy DeBoe Hicks at 212-452-7723 or hicks@tcf.org.

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