What can -- and should -- the next presidential administration do about reducing health-care costs in the U.S.? That was among the questions posed to three policy experts in a Stanford News Service piece. The medical school's Kate Bundorf, PhD, had this to offer:
Changing how providers are paid is very important. Moving providers away from payment systems that create incentives for them to do more to payment systems that promote value-based care will be important for reducing health-care spending in ways that benefit patients.
Since the government runs Medicare, it has the most control over payments to providers when they treat Medicare beneficiaries. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set some ambitious goals for reducing and changing provider payment, so how the next administration implements them will be important to watch.
Bundorf; Lanhee Chen, PhD, JD, with the Hoover Institution; and Mark Duggan, PhD, with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, also shared their thoughts on what has worked (and what hasn't) with the Affordable Care Act and what actions the new president should take to improve health care. It's worth a read as Election Day nears.
Previously: At Stanford symposium, a look at the next four years of health policy, A primer on consumer-driven health care plans and Experts discuss high costs of health care; and what it will take to change the system
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