When administration officials tout the cost savings potential of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a lead New England Journal of Medicine article (NEJM.org Aug. 12, 2010), one has to wonder if the statute adequately addresses the core drivers of poor health and excessive health care costs in a way which is understandable and actionable by patients and their doctors.
Given that the United States has the highest health care costs in the world relative to the size of our economy, it would be hard to argue against the utility of examining where and how our health care dollars are being spent. Finding ways to decrease the cost and burden of health care benefits both patients and the economy.
Care Oregon, the state’s main Medicaid managed care plan, had two choices a few years ago, after many commercial partners in the Oregon Health Plan decided to get out of the money-draining business. It could go broke. Or it could change its world.
Unlike in the U.S., where it’s exceedingly difficult to pass health care legislation, sweeping health care reforms are commonplace in Britain. Because of their parliamentary, winner-takes-all political system, when each new government arrives in power, they almost always introduce broad changes to the National Health Service.
