Renewing the Promise

No programme in the history of domestic federal legislation has done more to promote the health and well-being of America's elderly and disabled than Medicare. Yet Medicare has its flaws, and there are reasons for concern about its future. Changes in the health care system - some of them hastened by Medicare - have rendered parts of its original design obsolete. Compromises that were necessary in 1965 to ensure the legislation was passed have come back to haunt the programme, in the form of escalating costs and red tape. Participants in the Harvard Medicare Project here assess the programme on its 20th anniversary. They look at the challenges facing Medicare, and suggest specific improvements. The product of two years' study, the book analyses Medicare's successes and failures, and the key issues raised by the programme, in a clear, informative way. Those interested in issues of health care provision.