Learn Nothing, Forget Nothing — The Medicare Commission Redux

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two years ago, I wrote about the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, of which I was a member.1 The commission went out of business in March 1999, having failed to adopt recommendations or issue a report. Since then, a fair amount of mythology has grown up about why the commission's process came out as it did. More important, major political leaders — including President George W. Bush — have continued to speak in favor of some sort of Medicare “reform” consistent with the recommendations that were proposed by the commission's cochairs, Senator John Breaux (D-La.) and Representative . . .