From the Pioneer Institute:
Michael Barone, best-selling author and respected national political commentator, will deliver the keynote address, “Election 2012 and the American Experiment,” at Pioneer Institute’s 2012 Better Government Competition Awards ceremony in Boston. This year’s theme, Restoring Federalism, focused on devolving federal programs back to the states to bring about cost savings and more effective service delivery.
We congratulate the winning entry, Coordinated Care Management for Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries, authored by Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute, and Robert Helms, Ph.D., American Enterprise Institute. They propose that the federal government allow states to reform how some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens receive health care services. Allowing states to integrate care for “dual eligibles,” those receiving both Medicaid and Medicare services, will save billions and improve the quality of the care they receive. According to a recent announcement by the Patrick Administration, this idea will be implemented for 110,000 of the 270,000 duals in Massachusetts.
The 2012 runners-up identify ways to improve USAID training programs for foreign students, rein in the runaway cost of federal natural disaster responses, augment the transparency of public pension investments, and reduce rush hour congestion through performance measurement.
Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Competition, founded in 1991, is an annual citizens’ ideas contest that rewards some of the nation’s most innovative public policy proposals. This year’s contest drew over 200 submissions from across the country.