The Center for Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at the McCourt School of Public Policy launched a Medicare Policy Initiative, which will provide quick, short-term healthcare policy analysis for politicians and the general public, on Oct. 29.
The Medicare Policy Initiative, which expands CHIR’s focus to public insurance for the first time, seeks to provide a neutral and in-depth perspective to guide policy discussions about Medicare, the public health insurance for U.S. residents over the age of 65 and younger residents with disabilities, by explaining complicated studies in accessible terms. The initiative works with political candidates and politicians who can solicit guidance on proposals and publish information about Medicare policy.
Carrie Graham, director of the Medicare Policy Initiative, said accessibility is at the core of the initiative’s mission.
“There’s a lot of really complicated research out there, so our goal is to take a few different kinds of complicated students and translate those to the people who need to understand them,” Graham told The Hoya.
Graham said the initiative’s place is to be an impartial, science-focused voice amidst heavily politicized rhetoric around Medicare.
“What we try to accomplish is to have evidence-informed and policy-informed recommendations and advice to people who are making policy and plans, as well as consumers who are making their choices,” Graham said. “We want to be more of a neutral voice out there.”
Rachel Schmidt, a research professor in the initiative, said Medicare is important to study because of its enormous impact on American healthcare — over 66 million people use Medicare.
“It’s a wonderful program in that it’s giving insurance coverage to so many people at a stage in life where personal circumstances are really difficult,” Schmidt told The Hoya. “But it’s also got some really big holes — people in original Medicare have to pay a lot of cost-sharing.”
Leila Sullivan, a research fellow in the initiative, said she hoped the initiative would make Medicare policy more tangible and comprehensible for policymakers and the public.
“Medicare payment is crazy,” Sullivan told The Hoya. “You could read 12 books a day on it for the rest of your life and you’d still not completely understand it. We just want to inform, we want the factual information to be involved here, and to show that the policy isn’t that scary if you break it down.”
Graham said the initiative stemmed from CHIR’s interest in expanding its focus to include public insurance, since the center had primarily studied private insurance systems previously.
“There’s this whole other side of healthcare, Medicare, that we haven’t focused on, and it’s a really huge program,” Graham said. “Funders came to CHIR, which had done all this work of direct policy analysis for policymakers, and they asked us to start a new initiative that uses those same approaches, but really looks at Medicare and Medicare Advantage.”
Schmidt said the initiative would be looking at the debate between Medicare’s original publicly-run model and Medicare Advantage, which is a privatized model that purports to cut costs for beneficiaries and the government by using private companies that limit healthcare options.
“I’m enjoying being part of this project because I want to try and help and improve incentives on both sides, for the original Medicare and for Medicare Advantage,” Schmidt said.
Graham added that the current debates surrounding Medicare and Medicare Advantage were beginning to enter politics now, which made the Medicare Policy Initiative even more important.
“I think we’re at a tipping point in this program where there’s a lot of questions being asked of the private plans because they’re private companies and the government can’t interfere in certain ways,” Graham said.
Sullivan said she joined the initiative because of Medicare’s increasing relevance in healthcare policy, notably after Donald Trump’s recent presidential win, which has the potential to elevate Project 2025, a blueprint for an ultraconservative presidency that includes the complete privatization of Medicare.
“Medicare is a really interesting space, especially with all the prescription drug price negotiations going on right now, and all the discourse around Medicare Advantage,” Sullivan said. “Especially now with Project 2025 becoming more of a reality, it looks like Medicare Advantage is going to be taking a lot of the Medicare focus.”
Sullivan added that the initiative’s goal is to inform policymakers across the political spectrum who are interested in any Medicare-related work instead of acting as political advisors.
“It’s about having serious, backed-up data and factual information to inform policymakers,” Sullivan said. “We just want to give them that information, that basis, to hopefully be more informed in their policy.”
