Strategies for Expanding Access, Controlling Costs

Excerpted from Politico.com
R. Bruce Josten
Executive Vice President
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

For all its faults, American health care does many things right. The good news is that we don't need to start from scratch and don't need a grand overhaul. The bad news is that our health care system costs too much, covers too few, is rarely efficient, is often negligent, and focuses too much on treatment and not enough on prevention.

The best way to reduce costs is to prevent the need for services. Many employers have stepped up to the plate by starting walking groups, subsidizing or providing gyms, offering smoking-cessation plans, and switching to healthier foods in cafeterias and vending machines.

We need to expand and support the employer-sponsored system. Congress needs to pass small group market reforms so that companies can pool risk and purchase coverage at an affordable price. A further reduction in cost can be achieved by implementing health IT.

We also need to stop the trial bar from using our health care system as an ATM. Anyone who suffers a medical injury due to a preventable error deserves legal redress. However, there is a difference between negligence and not being omnipotent. Trial lawyers have built a litigation machine that drives up prices and drives health care providers out of the profession. Creating specialized health liability courts would remove medical malpractice claims from the tort system.

Clearly, there is no single solution to our many health care problems.

Excerpted from Politico.com
Igor Volsky
Health Care Researcher
Center for American Progress Action Fund

Some health care analysts contend that today's financial crisis endangers the possibility of comprehensive health care reform. The fact is that the health care crisis and the financial crisis exacerbate the economic health of individual Americans and companies.

Companies are concerned about financing benefits, including health care and pensions, and many are shifting health expenses onto American families.

Increasing access to affordable health care while simultaneously addressing cost containment is the bailout this economy requires. Some conservatives, however, believe that cost containment should be the only goal of health reform. They would push Americans into cheaper but less substantial health plans in the individual market and would allow insurance companies to ignore state consumer protections and sell subprime coverage in a deregulated national insurance marketplace, outside of state-level protections.

Americans can't afford the high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses that accompany individual health care plans. We can't afford to support the same kind of deregulatory policies that created today's sweeping financial crisis. Instead, we must strengthen the role of the group market, give Americans a choice of plans, emphasize the use of better information technology, and reduce health care spending by reorienting the system toward proven prevention and chronic disease management.