Health Care Cost Control Must Be System-Wide

NCHC Writers
Default Image

News Type: 

News Article

February 2, 2011

Issue Areas: 

Cost, Coverage, Economic Impacts, Financing, Insurance, Policy Implementation

Efforts to control the rising costs of health care solely by addressing federal spending shifts costs to state and local governments, businesses, and families. In a Commonwealth Fund blog post, Karen Davis, Cathy Shoen, and Stuart Guterman suggest that the United States must reform its entire fragmented and misaligned financing system in order to bend the health care cost curve. The authors propose that Medicare partner with private insurers to tackle elements contributing to skyrocketing costs. The authors argue this partnership could leverage the combined purchasing power of all payers while achieving a value for money spent.

More from content