The Medicare world from both sides: a conversation with Tom Scully. Interview by Uwe E. Reinhardt

Tom Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the nation's largest health insurer, discusses the Medicare program with Princeton University economist Uwe Reinhardt. Scully's previous appointments in both the public and private sectors have given him a diverse set of experiences from which to draw in his current position. He praises the agency's staff for devising innovations to cope with a changing health care environment, praises the program for continuing to meet most seniors' needs, and staunchly defends the Bush administration's focus on the private sector as the way forward for Medicare.