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To “fix” health care delivery, turn to a value-based health care system

With over two-thirds of the public believing that health care should be a top policy priority, there is no debating the importance of “fixing” our health care delivery system. On one extreme of the aisle, there is a growing chorus in support for “Medicare-for-all,” a single-payer, government-funded approach estimated by two independent studies from both liberal– and conservative-leaning institutes to cost about $32 trillion over the next 10 years. On the other side of the political spectrum sits an approach focused on individuality (e.g., the inclusion of health savings accounts [HSAs]), competition, and limited government intervention and financial support for all citizens regardless of socioeconomic standing; the most recent proposed plan, the American Healthcare Act of 2017, was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to reduce federal deficits by $119 billion over 10 years but lead to an estimated increase of 23 uninsured million Americans by 2026. In between these two approaches rest the remaining health care policy proposals, none of which have garnered widespread support within their own political party, let alone across party lines. America needs a health care policy solution. The true – and lasting – solution? A value-based health care system. Fundamentally, there has yet to be a single proposal that profoundly changes how stakeholders provide, pay, or evaluate health care delivered. Value-based health care reimagines health care to align these misaligned incentives by refocusing health care on the patient and the patient’s needs. Such an approach rewards value – defined as health outcomes achieved per dollar spent – across the entire care cycle for a given condition. In doing so, the health care delivery system helps to curtail the rising cost of health care and address concerns of a growing uninsured population – the ultimate goal of any health care system from any political viewpoint.

Courtesy and Author: David Berstein