There was a great line at this morning's Business and Health Care forum, attributed to Newt Gingrich, which went something like, "one man's $200 billion in waste is another man's $200 billion profit stream." That's about the most essential fact in health care politics there is.
Some other thought-provoking comments:
• "In this country, our biggest source of health costs are preventable, chronic diseases. 25 years ago, they were acute conditions." In other words, the bulk of our spending isn't in cardiac arrest, but in managing cardiac disease. That suggests a prevention and wellness directed approach to cost control, not to mention significantly more research into how to cost effectively manage chronic conditions.
• "We need plan designs that incentivize the right patient behaviors and disincentivize wrong behaviors. At Pitney-Bowes, we eliminated the costs of 'tier one' drugs for chronic conditions. The result was reductions in the rate of cost increase for diabetes, cardiovascular health, etc -- all because we made those drugs free!" This goes to my progressive cost-sharing argument, but there are quite a few treatments we know to be effective and cheap if followed. If we made it effective and cheap to follow them, it would lower costs and improve health.
