May 7, 2008 9:31PM # Cato Forum: Whatever Happened to Medicare Reform? By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Consider the following: 1. Research suggests the federal [Medicare](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&pid=1441322) program spends as much as $100 billion per year on medical care that makes seniors neither [healthier](http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/138/4/273) nor [happier](http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/138/4/288). 2. Medicare’s payment system continues to reward low-quality and even [harmful](http://www.medpac.gov/publications/congressional_reports/Mar04_Ch2.pdf) medical care. 3. The [trustees](http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/) of the Medicare program have issued yet another annual [report](http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2008.pdf) containing dire warnings about Medicare’s financial sustainability, including an unfunded liability of $86 trillion. 4. According to economist and former Medicare trustee Tom Saving, Medicare alone will require tax rates to rise by 25 percent within a generation, and to double within 75 years, absent reform. 5. The picture is far worse than it was when politicians were developing [fundamental Medicare reforms](http://medicare.commission.gov/medicare/index.html) 10 years ago. You would think that Medicare reform would be a high priority for politicians. You would be wrong. The president has proposed reforms that would barely slow the program’s growing dependence on general revenues — a proposal that Congress has largely ignored. The leading presidential candidates advocate tweaks — such as reducing payments for private plans and prescription drugs, or tying payments to quality measures — rather than fundamental reforms. To help get the politicians focus on this crucial issue, the Cato Institute will host a policy forum on **Thursday, May 15,** titled, **“Whatever Happened to Medicare Reform?”** [Tom Saving](http://www.tamu.edu/perc/perc/Staff.htm#drsaving), the Commonwealth Fund’s [Stuart Guterman](http://www.commonwealthfund.org/bios/bios_show.htm?doc_id=280408), and [I](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-cannon/) will discuss the current state of the Medicare program, and how the program needs to be reformed. The forum will run from **12pm to 1:30pm**. Click [here](https://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=4424) to register. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).