Articles
Seven Policies To Reduce Medicare Spending And Shrink The Federal Deficit
We asked Medicare policy experts to write up proposals that save taxpayers ~$100 billion over ten years. Here’s what they came up with.
October 20, 2026
As California struggles to administer COVID vaccines in a timely manner, questions arise as to what demographic should go first and how the nation can better prepare for similar crises. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine whose recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss COVID lessons learned over the past year and a sensible approach moving forward.
Recorded January 26, 2021
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Essays
Reducing Premiums Subsidies for High-Income Enrollees in Medicare Part B
General revenue now funds about half of Medicare. This brief proposes replacing Medicare Part B’s five IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) premium tiers with a linear ramp that ends the taxpayer subsidy at $250,000 of income for single seniors and $500,000 for couples. The reform raises up to $113 billion over 10 years, removes premium cliffs to smooth out marginal tax rates, and leaves premiums unchanged for roughly 90% of Part B enrollees.
October 20, 2026
Modernizing Medicare Cost Sharing
Traditional Medicare’s cost-sharing structure has not changed since 1965. Beneficiaries face separate Part A and Part B deductibles, per-day hospital copays, no coinsurance on certain services, and no annual out-of-pocket cap. This brief lays out reform templates proposed by the Simpson-Bowles Commission, the Congressional Budget Office, and others, compares a decade of budget scores, and analyzes a pending Senate bill that would add a spending cap without the offsetting cost-saving reforms.
October 20, 2026