Under the Microscope

Today, diverse stakeholders groups, including the American Hospital Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the American Medical Association, AdvaMed, PhRMA, and the SEIU, announced at the White House their pledge to reduce the annual health care spending growth rate in this country by 1.5 percentage points for the next 10 years. If done in the context of health care reform, this would have the effect of saving the country $2 trillion dollars over that time. Slowing the rate of cost growth is one of the major goals of health care reform, in addition to improving quality, increasing access, and protecting patient choice of providers, plan, and treatments.

View The Letter From Stakeholder Groups To President Obama [5/11/09]
View the Fact Sheet About Today’s Announcement [5/11/09]

Related News Stories

·         Industry Reps Offer $2 Trillion in Health Savings: Cost Reductions Are Part of a Bid to Help Pass Obama’s Health Overhaul [AP, 5/10/09]

·         Industry Pledges to Control Health Care Costs
[New York Times, 5/10/09]

·         Health-Care Providers Pledge to Try to Curb Costs
[Wall Street Journal, 5/11/09]

·         OPINION: A New Beginning For Health Care Reform?
[Atlantic, 5/11/09]

·         OPINION: Harry, Louise, and Barack
[New York Times, 5/11/09]

·         OPINION: What the Pledge To Curb Health Costs Does (and Doesn’t) Mean [Wall Street Journal, 5/11/09]

·         OPINION: Guess Who’s Coming to the White House [New Republic, 5/10/09]

Health Care Headlines

·         Obama Aides Lay Groundwork for Health Reform
Even though health care reform still hovers just below the radar, White House personnel are fully engaged in laying the groundwork for an expected summertime debate over some version of the overhaul President Barack Obama promoted during his campaign. [Roll Call, 5/11/09]

·         Health Care Reform: Every Group Has Its Own Demands
Patients and doctors. Small businesses and multinationals. Retirees, workers and insurance companies. Some have more money and clout. All have something in common when it comes to overhauling health care: a huge stake in the outcome. [USA Today, 5/10/09]

·         Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits
In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation. A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now.
[New York Times, 5/10/09]

·         Hospitals Pay for Cutting Costly Readmissions
It is one of the biggest avoidable costs on the nation’s medical bill. Millions of patients each year leave the hospital only to return within weeks or months for lack of proper follow-up care. One in five Medicare patients, for example, returns to the hospital within 30 days. Over all, readmissions cost the federal government an estimated $17 billion a year. But even when hospitals find ways to greatly reduce the return trips, saving money for Medicare and other insurers, their efforts go unrewarded.
[New York Times, 5/11/09]

·         Out of College, Out of Coverage
Maggie Walmsley was heading home from class at Cabrini College recently when her stepmother called with some graduation advice. "She told me, 'You can't mess with your future, because our insurance company has your information, and once you graduate, you're off,' " says Walmsley, 21, of Drexel Hill.
[Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/11/09]

·         Public Debate Over ‘Public Option’ for Healthcare
Interest groups begin spending millions to sway opinions over Obama's plan to offer a choice between private and government coverage. The debate could threaten larger plans for a healthcare overhaul.
[L.A. Times, 5/10/09]

·         EDITORIAL: Democrats Should Reform Medicare, Not Universalize It
By Morton M. Kondracke
If President Barack Obama really is a pragmatic problem solver and not a liberal ideologue, he will stop pushing for a government-run insurance plan as part of health care reform. And Democrats in Congress, instead of trying to drive all Americans into a Medicare-style, single-payer health plan, should first figure out how to reform Medicare itself, which is rapidly going broke while failing to serve all the medical needs of seniors. [Roll Call, 5/7/09]