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Health CEOs for Health Reform
Making Quality Healthcare Affordable for All
Event.Health CEOs for
Health Reform recently held a successful event
on Capitol Hill, Making Quality
Healthcare Affordable for All. For more details, check out our posts on the
New Health Dialogue Blog.We also have a video highlight reel of speakers, including White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy Ann DeParle. Full video coverage is available here.
Policy Paper. The
Health CEOs for Health Reform event was accompanied by the release of Realigning
U.S. Health Care Incentives to Better Serve Patients and Taxpayers, also
available as a two-page executive
summary. This white paper details the recommendations of the Health CEOs, emphasizing
a need to refocus health care delivery on the patient and move away from
fee-for-service medicine.
The American health care system is in crisis. To create a sustainable health system for all, we must cover all Americans, control costs, and enhance quality. The Health Policy Program at New America Foundation is committed to comprehensive reform of the American health care system to meet these goals. With bipartisan leadership that extends from Congress to business, labor, and health system leaders, we can improve Americans’ health and financial security and make our economy more competitive around the globe.
They are the patients who leave the hospital, only to boomerang back
days or weeks later. They have become a front-burner challenge not only
for hospitals and doctors but also for those trying to rein in rising
costs.
Typically elderly and suffering from the chronic diseases that
account for 75 percent of health-care spending, their experiences of
being readmitted time and again reflect many of the deficiencies in a
fragmented, poorly coordinated health system geared toward acute care.
Health care reform worth the name would accomplish two things: (1) quality, affordable coverage for all, and (2) a high-quality health system that is economically sustainable. These goals are linked --one cannot be achieved without the other. We must summon the courage to do bold reforms, not timid half-measures, when the going gets tough.
The United States and China have more in common than their paramount importance in the global economy. The citizens of both countries share the same basic complaint: bad healthcare. As the White House prepares to roll out its plan to overhaul the United States' woefully inadequate health insurance system, it may be instructive to look across the Pacific, where an even more ambitious effort is underway to give access to healthcare to the millions left behind by China's rapid economic… more
The question of whether a new public health insurance plan should be allowed to compete with private health insurance plans has polarized the health reform debate unnecessarily. Extremes from both political parties have tried to use the issue to prevent progress toward a bipartisan health reform package.
But health reform must be bipartisan to be sustainable over time. This means both sides' priorities must be reflected in the policy solution.
Our nation must re-establish fiscal balance as soon as macroeconomically permissible. At this moment, there is no question that we must take substantive steps to stimulate our economy and address the crises in our housing and financial markets.
In fact, I have never seen such consensus in a profession as argumentative as economics. But America's economic and social futures are also threatened by several long-term challenges. First among these is the ever-rising cost of health care.
In these case studies for The Commonwealth Fund, Dr. Nichols and Tom Emswiler examine high-performing health care systems to see how they achieve better outcomes at lower cost. Both the Hill Physicians Medical Group, an association of physicians in individual practice, and the Baylor Health Care System, a highly integrated delivery system, have successfully standardized care, implemented electronic medical records, and improved clinical outcomes.
The
ever-growing cost of health care is the largest threat to our nation's
long-term fiscal future. One way of tackling this problem is by using
Medicare-the nation's largest purchaser of health care-as a catalyst for
widespread efficiencies in the private sector. Medicare must become a
more value-based purchaser to make the Program sustainable over time and incent
the private sector toward change. It is imperative that we act decisively
and soon. Yet, we believe embarking on a Medicare-only reform effort
"The Case for Health Reform: The Moral, Economic, & Quality Motives for Action" compiles the facts and figures that explain why health reform is a moral
imperative, an economic necessity, and a necessary step toward ensuring our
health system delivers high-quality care to us all.
Our nation has an obligation to
make sure everyone has quality, affordable health coverage. However, coverage
will not be sustainable unless we refocus our delivery system on patients,
improve quality, and increase efficiency.
Transforming our delivery system
is good public policy and a necessary component of fiscal responsibility. Yet,
we will not slow the rate of health care cost growth until we create stronger
incentives for providers - the people who deliver care -… more
The
rising cost of health care is the largest long-term fiscal problem facing our
nation. Efforts to control health care costs and reform the delivery system
should be system-wide, but Medicare can lead the way. Medicare - the largest
purchaser of health care - should act as a catalyst to inject value into the
health system and incent the private sector toward change.
Meaningful health reform will entail quality, affordable coverage for all Americans and a restructured health care delivery system. A growing number of health industry leaders understand they must reorganize their business models to realize these goals.
Program Director Len Nichols is regularly asked to testify before Congress on health policy matters. For the full texts of his prepared testimony, please see the links below:
February 23, 2008--Despite the economic crisis, the case for health reform has never been more clear, according to a new report and video released today by the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation.
The report, entitled “The Case for Health Reform: The Moral, Economic,
and Quality Motives for Action,” compiles the facts and figures that
explain why health reform is a moral imperative, an economic necessity,
and a necessary step toward ensuring our health system delivers high-quality care to us all.
For more information and to see the full text of the report, please click here.
Event. Health CEOs for
Health Reform recently held a successful event
on Capitol Hill, Making Quality
Healthcare Affordable for All. For more details, check out our posts on the
New Health Dialogue Blog.We also have a video highlight reel of speakers, including White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy Ann DeParle. Full video coverage is available here.
The American health care system is in crisis. To create a sustainable health system for all, we must cover all Americans, control costs, and enhance quality. The Health Policy Program at New America Foundation is committed to comprehensive reform of the American health care system to meet these goals. With bipartisan leadership that extends from Congress to business, labor, and health system leaders, we can improve Americans’ health and financial security and make our economy more competitive around the globe.
