by Christopher Cornue

Our friends at the Commonwealth Fund have provided us with a wonderful New Year’s present – “Bending The Curve: Options for Achieving Savings and Improving Value in US Health Spending”.

Built upon established facts that US health spending is expected to increase from 16% ($2 trillion) of the GDP in 2006 to 20% ($4 trillion) of the GDP in 2016, the authors of this detailed and unique report offer options that have the potential to “bend the curve” of this increase and keep our spending from increasing so rapidly. The options they present are in some cases radical changes in our thinking and rely heavily on changes in governmental policies; however, overall, they are plausible solutions providing an opportunity to control our healthcare spending. They assert that over the next decade, it would be possible to reduce national expenditures while simultaneously improving access, quality and population health.

The report is focused on a combination of policies that address different aspects of the healthcare industry:

• Production and use of better information for health care decision-making;
• Promotion of health & disease prevention efforts;
• Alignment of financial incentives with health quality & efficiency;
• Correction of price signals in health care markets.

Through forthcoming postings, we’ll try to examine each of these areas and policies identified by the report.

As is always the case with The Commonwealth Fund, much of their efforts are focused on promoting a national discussion around issues and solutions. They’ve accomplished this once again and over the next several postings, we’ll do the same.