Medicare chief defends program as 'viable'

The nation’s top Medicare official on Monday rebuked the House GOP’s plan to radically overhaul the healthcare program for seniors.

Medicare Administrator Don Berwick, who told reporters on Monday he hadn’t seen the specifics of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) Medicare overhaul, said lawmakers need to find the “political will” to maintain the program’s current structure while finding additional savings.

“I think Medicare system now is viable, it can improve, and that’s my commitment to help do that,” Berwick told reporters.

Berwick, speaking to the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) annual meeting, cited healthcare reform’s new accountable care organization regulations, its focus on rewarding quality care and a new Medicare innovation center as major tools built into the overhaul to help control cost.

“Our country is facing a choice. … We can either cut care, or we can change how healthcare does its work,” Berwick told the AHA. “I’m not for cutting. I’m for changing.”

The House is scheduled to vote Friday on Ryan’s budget plan, which would transform Medicare into a voucher-like program for individuals 55 and younger. Democrats have pounced on the Ryan plan, which provides federal assistance to seniors to purchase private coverage, and a White House official this weekend said the president wouldn’t sign on to it.

While Democrats have been on the attack over the past week, President Obama on Wednesday will outline his own vision for long-term deficit reduction that includes reforms to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Berwick told reporters he hasn’t seen the White House plan, but he hopes it will build on healthcare reform’s efforts to improve healthcare delivery.

“It’s a test of political will whether we’re going to focus on improvement as the way to help patients at the same time as getting a sustainable healthcare system,” Berwick said.