The Bipartisan Agreement On How To Fix Medicare

Ever wonder about the logic underlying the science of insurance "risk transfer?" 

The Disease Management Care Blog understands why not, but that didn't stop it from submitting an article to the prestigious Health Affairs blog on the topic.  Titled "Medicare's Looming Risk Transfer," it describes the rationale that undergirds the exchange of money for risk.

"Big deal" you retort?  "Bleh!" you say?  "That's so.... actuarial?"

Fair enough, but the insightful DMCB doesn't stop there.  It then shrewdly points out that when it comes to the Medicare's looming bankruptcy, the political elites from all sides of the political spectrum have ironically agreed on two key points:

1) Congress and CMS are utterly incapable of managing the insurance risk that Uncle Sam accepted in exchange for trillions in payroll taxes and premium payments,

and

2) The solution is to have CMS' "re" transfer its under-monetized risk elsewhere.  The Dems want to transfer (or dump) that risk on providers  in the form of bundling or ACOs, while the GOP wants to repackage (or dump) that risk on beneficiaries in the form of vouchers.

The "triple aim" you thought?  "Innovation?" you believed? "Improving Medicare?" you understood?

Read the Health Affairs blog and think again.