Health Care

As more baby boomers retire and the over-65 population rises from 12 percent of Americans in 2010 to 25 percent in 2030, paying for their care will become increasingly difficult, the Congressional

Any credible health care reform plan that Congress passes must include a meaningful target for restraining long-term cost growth that can be enforced.

A number of recent bipartisan health plans, as well as budgets proposed by elected officials in Washington, are optimistic and even “remarkably ambitious” on this score, according to Concord Coalition Policy Director Joshua Gordon. They envision even greater cost restraint than the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was itself considered quite ambitious in this regard when it was passed three years ago.

Projections from the Congressional Budget Office last week confirm that the most powerful factors in the current budget dynamic are aging, health care costs and interest on the growing federal debt

This is post three of a three-part series on the developing consensus for the next steps on health care reform. Part One is here. Part Two is here.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released updated numbers yesterday showing a short-term decline in projected deficits, but elected officials and the public should not be lulled into a false s

One of the central problems with the country’s health care system is that it often shields consumers from costs in ways that provide little incentive to hold them down. In many cases, the consumers do not even know the full costs of their treatment or insurance coverage.

In other words, they have relatively little “skin in the game.” This, combined with other problems in the health care system, leads to excessive levels of utilization and spending.

This is post two of a three-part series on the developing consensus for the next steps on health care reform. Part One is here. Part three is here.

While Washington continues to struggle with its budget problems, state and local governments face growing fiscal challenges as well.

Several high-profile, bipartisan health care reform plans have demonstrated in recent months that there is a developing consensus among fiscal and health care policy experts on the steps needed to move the country towards a less expensive, more effective and more patient-centered system.

The plans are the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Care Cost Initiative, the health care portion of the latest Simpson-Bowles recommendations, a plan from the Engleberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings, and a plan from the National Coalition on Health Care.

This is post one of a three-part series on the developing consensus for the next steps on health care reform. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.