title: The need for evidence-based health policy to address health care variations.
abstract: Medicare policy making now deals mostly with price-setting issues. However, as Warren Buffet has noted: "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." Victor Fuchs's studies raise fundamental issues for a value-oriented Medicare program. Florida offers one of many regional patterns of Medicare mortality that are not yet adequately explained. Valued-oriented, evidence-based Medicare policies would target opportunities to improve population health and would foster greater use of evidence-based medicine.
authors.affiliation: lyneth1@aol.com
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Etheredge
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006291:Health Policy; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States