From a Generation Behind to a Generation Ahead: Transforming Traditional Medicare

January 1998

From a Generation Behind to a Generation Ahead: Transforming Traditional Medicare is the final product of the study panel that was charged with analyzing options for improving the fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare program over the long term.

Managing FFS Medicare represents one of the most important and difficult challenges facing the Executive Branch and Congress. With a 1997 budget of $183 billion, FFS Medicare accounted for 88 percent of all Medicare spending and about 11 percent of the entire federal budget. This report synthesizes the study panel’s analysis of the key characteristics and difficulties of the FFS program, state-of-the-art management practices among private insurers, and policy alternatives to prepare FFS Medicare for the next generation of beneficiaries.