Whatever merits one may ascribe to the recently enacted Medicarelaw, it has aggravated, not controlled, rapidly rising Medicarecosts. Its major feature is a massive entitlement expansion, but italso embodies some bad health care policy: There is no need for thefederal government to displace existing drug coverage, pre-empt newprivate-sector options, or accelerate the loss of employer-baseddrug coverage.
Failure to link benefit improvements with needed reforms willsimply lead to a Medicare program that is inferior and fails toprovide enough help to those who need it while passing a hugefinancial burden on to future generations.