What Is Medicare?
The Health Care Financing Administration provides easy-to-follow information on who is eligible for Medicare and answers other frequently asked questions about the program.

Top 20 Questions and Answers
The Medicare + Choice toll free line provides this quick guide to some of the more frequent queries about Medicare. A guide on how to combat Medicare fraud and abuse is also available.

Medicare & You
This Health Care Financing Administration provides this interactive database, allowing Medicare recipients to "comparison shop" amongst health care plans.

Final Breaux-Thomas Medicare Reform Proposal
Read the March 1999 proposal from the Medicare reform commission, which spent a year meeting on the issue. The commission's complete report is also available.

Clinton Statement on Breaux-Thomas Plan
Verbatim transcript from the White House provides reaction from President Clinton on the Breaux proposal.

1999 State of the Union Address
In his January 1999 State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed devoting 15 percent of the anticipated surpluses over the next 15 years – a total of nearly $700 billion – to Medicare.

1999 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds explains how and why Medicare's future is not as dire as some predicted.

Congressional Budget Office Projections (1999)
In this March 1999 report, the Congressional Budget Office projects the costs associated with longterm health-care services for the elderly, through 2040. Also, check out the CBO's May 1998 report, which provides an analysis on how to reduce the growth in Medicare spending.

AARP Advocacy Center for Medicare
The American Association for Retired Persons Medicare site includes background, opinions and a helpful glossary of Medicare terms.

Medicare Rights Center
This national, non-profit organization seeking to ensure quality health care to seniors and people with disabilities, provides information on Medicare in order to provide for equitable access.

Medicare's Origin: The Economics and Politics of Dependency
This analysis from the Cato Institute argues that for decades Medicare payroll taxes have required low-income workers to subsidize medical care for more affluent retirees. Also see the Institute's The Wrong and Right Ways To Reform Medicare.