The medicare preservation act of 1995: Republican revolution or business as usual

The Republicans swept to majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in 1994 promising a "revolution." One key component of their promised reforms was a plan for a balanced budget. As part of this effort, Medicare was targeted as a program whose growth must be reined in. This vague goal was given shape by House Republicans in the Medicare Preservation Act of 1995. This paper addresses the question of whether the House Republican reform efforts are truly of a substantive nature, or whether their efforts are just slickly packaged platitudes better fitting the mold of "government as usual" than revolutionary.