Lowering Healthcare Costs: Bending the Cost Curve

Featured topic Saturday February 20, 2010

 

What are the best solutions to not just slow healthcare

costs, but to actually bring them down?

 

As a nation, we spend a staggering amount of money on healthcare.  Just to put the size and scope of our healthcare system in context, think of it this way: according to CMS, last year we spent $2.3 trillion— more than 16 percent of our entire economy— on healthcare.

This is almost the entire gross domestic product of France and Britain.  What we spend on healthcare is larger than the gross domestic product of more than 170 nations. 

And healthcare costs continue to rise.  According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2008 was a good year, when healthcare costs rose “only” 4.4 percent.  CMS projects that by 2019, total healthcare spending will double to $4.5 trillion a year and consume nearly 20 percent of our GDP.  As a country, we cannot sustain our current path. 

 

So how do we reverse this?  What can we actually do to “bend the curve”?  From insurance competition to consumerism to price and quality transparency to many other solutions, what do you think will work?

Comments

[James]

Why can't health insurance be run more like car insurance? States set guidelines (required minimum covereages) and those that need the insurance select from a menu of options to build a policy that meets thier needs. They can select from a large range of competitors based on cost and service (ratings). The costs are not sheilded through employer paid plans and individuals have a buy-in to keep prices down. Having a government run system or having the true cost sheilded by employer paid policies is not as efficient as having individuals competing and shopping for the best care at the best price.

[P. Laudenslager]

Individual Centered Health care

Ought to be just that.

Individual. Insurance companies do not benefit by offering family plans and it makes it difficult later to sort out. It just doesn’t make sense that a family of eight can be covered for the same money as a family of two. Lower the price of individual policies, but have each policy cover just one person. When a child is able to provide for themselves, they can maintain their own policy. Policies can gradually increase as age and need increase. Having collected (smaller amounts) for millions from birth to age twenty or so, when need is normally less would more easily extend coverage to middle life and old age.

Another advantage of this is keeping medical information secure to the person involved.

BUT NO MANDATES!!! It's unconstitutional!