Reality appears to have hit the health reform train head-on in the form of the costs of expanding coverage. Maybe we should focus on getting costs under control and then coverage extensions would be affordable.
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Shared decision-making for preference-sensitive conditions has the potential to improve quality and control spending. States are exploring required use of the technique and it should be considered in federal reform efforts.
The CBO’s June 16th letter to Senator Conrad is an excellent summary of health reform and cost control ideas and implementation issues.
Congressional Budget Office has responded briefly to the proposals by several health industry segments to create cost savings of up to two trillion dollars over ten years.
The Congressional Budget Office’s initial assessment of Senator Kennedy’s Affordable health Choices Act is that it would increase deficits by about one trillion dollars over the next ten years, but only increase the number of covered citizens by about a net 16 million people.
Many unions and some disease advocacy groups are objecting to the wellness and prevention provisions proposed in some health reform measures. In a USA Today article, the difficulties of our “system” once again point out the impediments to improvement.
Republican Senators have now introduced a bill to essentially gut federal funding or use of comparative effectiveness research, continuing an attack on the proposed expansion of such research for the purpose of controlling costs
Safeway Inc. has received a great deal attention around its health care plan and apparent cost savings. The essence of the plan is putting employees and their dependents directly at financial risk for improvements in certain key health-related behaviors.
The Wall Street Journal article summarized some research results regarding the potential cost savings of prevention and wellness efforts, particularly for persons with chronic diseases. The overall conclusion is that not much money is likely to be saved by such methods, primarily because the cost of these programs when applied to a large population tends to outweigh the health care cost savings which eventually accrue.
One of the controversial provisions in some health care reform proposals has been creation of a public plan, often analogized to Medicare, which would be an option offered alongside private insurance plans.
About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at [email protected].
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