The History of Medicare and
The Current Debate
The Birth of Medicare
The Heritage Foundation Media Campaign
Leading Market-Driven Legislative Proposal
Instability in the Medicare HMO Marketplace
The New Medicare Law: A Victory for the Proponents of Privatization
Growing Power of Extremist Think Tanks
MRC's Media Education Campaign
MRC's Media Education Campaign
MRC is actively engaged in trying to stop attempts by Congressional extremists to turn Medicare over to private insurance companies. Central to MRC’s work is public education describing both the success of Original Medicare and the necessity of modernizing Medicare to establish a more comprehensive and accessible health care system for older Americans and for people with disabilities. MRC believes so strongly in the Medicare model for financing and delivering health care that we believe that it should serve as a model for creating a health care system in the United States that will assure health care coverage for all.
On a periodic basis MRC writes briefs on important Medicare policy issues. These briefs have quantified the giveaways to private insurers and the drug companies in the new Medicare law. They have made the case for allowing US consumers to buy prescription drugs at the same low prices drug companies sell them at in other countries. MRC’s policy briefs are distributed to our network of policy analysts, legislators and social service agencies, made available to the press and posted on MRC’s Web site.
Also, the Policy Department has started a weekly electronic newsletter, Asclepios (named for the Greek and Roman god of medicine), which provides up-to-date information on leading Medicare consumer issues and strategies for mobilizing Medicare consumers and advocates on these issues. Approximately 1,000 community-based organizations currently subscribe to the list serve. Recent issues of Asclepios have discussed needed improvements to the new Medicare law, including allowing the government to negotiate low prices directly with the drug companies and the importance of ending excessive payments to private plans in Medicare. Each week Asclepios also suggests ways that activists can address these problems, such as through petitions and letters to Congress.