GO TO: Medicare HOME | Press Releases and Public Statements

For Immediate Release: November 23, 1998
Contact: Rusty Jabour

National Medicare Commission to Meet December 2 in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON (November 23) – The 17 members of the national Medicare commission will meet on Wednesday, Dec. 2, in Washington, D.C., to discuss the impacts of hypothetical Medicare reforms, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) said today.

The Commissioners will discuss the following issues: 1) Medicare fee-for-service and Medigap reforms, and 2) how a Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan-style premium formula might be applied to the Medicare program. No outside witnesses will appear and no votes are scheduled.

The Chairmen said the Commission is on schedule as it begins to review the impacts of different policies.

"For the past eight months, we have invited and received useful information from throughout the United States. Now, it’s time to begin examining the impacts of some of those ideas that could strengthen and improve Medicare for generations to come," the Chairmen said.

Since March, the Commission has gathered and analyzed information from a variety of sources, including experts, organizations, associations, volunteer groups and citizens. The Commission has sought input in many ways, including 30 public meetings, the national ‘Call For Solutions’ program, the Commission’s Internet website, a successful national field hearing, health care site tours, news releases, and gavel-to-gavel C-SPAN coverage of Commission meetings, the Chairmen said.

The Commission was created by the Congress in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and is charged with recommending solutions for the Medicare program to the Congress and the Administration by March 1, 1999.