Medicare

The Heritage Foundation

A defined contribution adjusted by income

The Heritage plan provides retirees with premium support payments from the government, similar to what federal employees now receive. Support decreases for the most affluent 9 percent of retirees. You may choose to use your premium support for Medicare's fee-for-service plan or private, competing health plans.

Protection against bankruptcy from medical bills

In addition to the option of keeping your current health coverage or choosing a better policy, the Heritage plan includes new protection against catastrophic health care expenses to ensure that you cannot be bankrupted by huge medical bills.

Medicare, at last, operates on a budget

Medicare currently faces an unfunded liability of over $30 trillion. Under the Heritage plan, premium support is set based on the principle that when private plans compete, you win - similar to federal employees' health coverage. Our plan also caps total Medicare spending to prevent runaway costs. This gives competing plans an incentive to control their costs.

Eliminate restrictions on doctor-patient arrangements

Current law restricts arrangements that doctors and patients might wish to make outside of the Medicare program. The Heritage plan abolishes those restrictions so doctors are free to provide care beyond Medicare benchmarks - without Washington in the middle.

New retirees can keep their existing plans

During the five-year transition to full premium support, our plan requires Medicare to provide defined contributions for any retirees who want to remain in their pre-existing health plan, including employer-based coverage and traditional fee-for-service plans.