@ Brookings Podcast: Improve Medicare, Medicaid Now to Avoid Radical Changes Later

As Washington struggles to tackle the nation’s debt, policymakers on both sides of the aisle have begun to acknowledge that the current course of the country’s Medicare and Medicaid programs—long thought of as the third rail of American politics—is unsustainable. Mark McClellan, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, explains how gradual changes to Medicare and Medicaid today will prevent more painful and radical changes tomorrow.