In early September, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform released a report, Bending the Curve: Effective Steps to Address Long-Term Spending Growth, to help inform the current debate. The report—aimed at identifying a concrete and feasible set of steps to slow long-term growth in health care spending—was developed by a group of leading experts in health care and economics.
This brief provides a high-level review of the legislation introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, including a side-by-side summary of key provisions of the Bending the Curve report and those in the Baucus proposal.
Overview
The Baucus health care reform proposal offers many promising ideas to improve the overall performance of the U.S. health care system. In addition to steps that would reduce the number of Americans without insurance coverage, the plan includes ways to slow long-term spending growth while building the high-value health care system our nation urgently needs.
Related
We believe there are important opportunities to modify or augment this proposal to further ensure that payment systems, regulations, and institutions are reformed as part of a comprehensive strategy to increase accountability and support for lowering costs and improving quality. In this review, we briefly summarize: 1) aspects of the Baucus proposal that we believe have the greatest potential to slow long-term spending growth; 2) areas not directly included in the proposal that we believe should be addressed; and 3) other aspects of the plan where modifications could increase the effectiveness of the overall reform package.
Related Books
As emphasized in Bending the Curve, the individual reforms described below—and in the report itself—should not be viewed as discrete, incremental steps that alone would slow long-term spending growth. Rather, these are interdependent and reinforcing reforms that should be implemented together to improve and modernize the U.S. health care system.
Joseph Antos
Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy, American Enterprise Institute
John Bertko
Chief Actuary - Covered California
Michael E. Chernew
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Dana Goldman
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Mark B. McClellan
Former Brookings Expert
Director, Margolis Center for Health Policy - Duke University
Mark Pauly
Bendheim Professor of Health Care Systems, University of Pennsylvania
