Description: Summarizes two Social Security Administration Actuarial Notes by the author. One compares actual experience under the Medicare program for the first full year of operation with the cost estimates that were made early in 1965. The second analyzes the annual death rates of the United States population aged 65 and over, before and after Medicare, for fiscal years 1961-68.

Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1971 – volume 5 - Issue 6 reviews the Advisory Council on Social Security's 1971 report on Social Security and Medicare.

Description: This is an article explaining the options employers have under the Medicare Part D, or the Prescription Drug Improvement and Medicare Modernization Act - MMA - that took effect in January 2006. The article discusses 4 options under the MMA with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Description: Graph of Medicare Prepaid Contracts

Description: This article is about the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This Act revises the Medicare landscape by the creation of Part C - Medicare+Choice, Medical Savings Accounts, payment reforms.

Description: Provides background about Prescription Drug Plans, PDPs, and the standard benefit package offered under Medicare Part D. It also provides a basic overview of the bid-development process for a PDP and summarizes some general strategies and observations used in developing the 2006 bids that will likely be used for 2007.

Description: Map of MA Regions Receiving Bids for Regional PPO Products

Description: This article discusses Medicare cost, specifically the hospital utilization rate and the average daily cost of hospitalization and the effect of Medicare on the great increases in health care costs since 1965.

Description: This article discusses Social Security amendments of 1983 that include triggering devices based on trust-fund ratios that affect the funding or benefits of the system for both OASDI and Medicare.

Description: Highlights the recent changes to Social Security and Medicare from enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Also highlights some changes voted in by one of the houses but not by both, and therefore not enacted.