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Top of The Administration’s Agenda: Stem the Rising Cost of Healthcare

January 27, 2017 By National Coalition on Health Care

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Reprinted with permission from Generations 40:4, Winter 2016-2017. Copyright © 2017. American Society on Aging, San Francisco, California. For electronic publication, please provide full citation, publication credit and hyperlink to ASA, www.asaging.org.

by John Rother

The rising cost of healthcare is one of the greatest economic, fiscal, and moral challenges facing the United States, not just for the next four years, but also for coming generations. Successful efforts to simultaneously improve quality and outcomes while “bending the curve” of healthcare spending must be a top national priority.

Where We Stand Today

Despite substantial progress reforming the health insurance market and reshaping healthcare delivery in the past six years, current trends are not promising for America’s older adults, or the population as a whole.

Undoubtedly, the United States has benefitted from an unexpected slowdown in health spending growth and the fact that more than 90 percent of the population is currently insured. But that fortuitous slowdown has largely ended, with spending climbing again at a rate well above inflation and wage growth, albeit not as high as historical norms. The reality is that the cost of Medicare and Medicaid will consume increasing shares of our economy and our federal budget in the years and decades ahead. Any resurgence of healthcare spending growth will only accelerate the impact of an aging population on health spending. And as Medicare costs grow, so will the premiums paid by beneficiaries, a development which will negatively affect their ability to afford care—with the greatest immediate impact on the 5 percent of beneficiaries, who generate 50 percent of healthcare spending.

In the non-Medicare population, the situation is no better. Recent analyses of the employer market and the non-group market show rising premiums and rapidly climbing deductibles.

On this trajectory, future generations of Americans will find it increasingly difficult to afford the care they need. Faced with these affordability barriers, Americans will experience higher rates of illness, disability, and early mortality than they otherwise might. Unless we act, this combination of poor health and the increasing cost of care will gradually erode our standard of living—until the security provided today by programs like Medicare, and the American dream of generational progress, both vanish under the growing burden of healthcare costs.

To continue reading, click here. To see the full digital issue of Generations, Journal of the American Society on Aging, click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Improving the Affordability of Coverage, NCHC In The News

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To bring together key stakeholders in order to achieve an affordable, high-value health care system for patients and consumers, for employers and other payers, and for taxpayers.

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National Coalition on Health Care

About Us

The National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) was formed more than two decades ago to help achieve comprehensive health system change and is currently led by John Rother. We aim to be a leader in promoting a healthy population and a more effective, efficient and responsive health system that provides quality care for all. NCHC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of organizations. Our growing Coalition represents more than 80 participating organizations, including medical societies, businesses, unions, health care providers, faith-based associations, pension and health funds, insurers, and groups representing consumers, patients, women, … Read More...

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To bring together key stakeholders in order to achieve an affordable, high-value health care system for patients and consumers, for employers and other payers, and for taxpayers.

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