American Well
To make health care coverage more affordable, the country must address the soaring cost of medical care that continues to increase at a dangerous rate. A greater focus is needed on the main drivers of medical cost growth: soaring prices for medical services, new costly prescription drugs and medical technologies, unhealthy lifestyles, and an outdated fee-for-service system.
More than one-sixth of the U.S. economy is devoted to health care spending and that percentage continues to rise every year. Regrettably, our system is not delivering value commensurate with, for example an estimated $2.5 trillion in 2009 spend on health care.1 These costs punish us on multiple fronts. For American families, the soaring cost of medical care means less money in their pockets and forces hard choices about balancing food, rent, and needed care. For all businesses, employers alike, it makes it more expensive to add new employees, more difficult to maintain retiree coverage, and harder to compete in the global economy. For federal, state, and local governments, rising health care costs lead to higher Medicare and Medicaid costs, and funding cuts for other priorities, such as infrastructure, education and public safety. Thus, the net results of rising health care costs are far-reaching: higher costs for health insurance, the fraying of the nation’s safety net, an erosion in our global competitiveness, nauseating political positioning and long-term fiscal insolvency.
While the health reform law makes important strides in expanding coverage, much more is needed to rein in the rising cost of health care. Other strategies for reducing health care costs are needed, particularly those that focus on promoting prevention and healthy living, improving patient safety, and promoting transparency on medical costs and quality, and reducing health disparities. All of these are