Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and West Health Launch Health Savers Initiative

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 -- West Health Institute issued the following news release:

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (http://www.crfb.org/) and the West Health Policy Center (https://www.westhealth.org/what-we-do/policy-advocacy-2/) have launched the Health Savers Initiative, a collaborative research project to develop bold policy solutions to lower health care costs.

The project will focus on making health care more affordable across all payers, including patients, employers, states and the federal government. It will produce detailed specifications for each policy option along with estimates of fiscal impacts for affected stakeholders.

"The high cost of health care threatens the financial security and well-being of all Americans, but it doesn't have to be that way," said Timothy A. Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center. "Our effort will get to the root cause of skyrocketing health care costs and identify realistic solutions policymakers can deploy to get serious about solutions."

"Health care is the single largest part of the federal budget, and its rapid growth is a key driver of our rising national debt," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "It's time for both sides to move beyond their talking points and start working together on evidence-based reforms to improve the value and cost effectiveness of our current system. The right types of policy changes will make health care more affordable for everyone; that includes the federal government."

Holly Harvey, director of health policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Cristina Boccuti, director of health policy at the West Health Policy Center, will lead the project.

For more information, please contact Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget press secretary Patrick Newton at newton@crfb.org or West Health Policy Center director of public affairs Sofia Kosmetatos at skosmetatos@westhealth.org.

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About the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Founded in 1981, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about budget-related issues. The bipartisan leadership of the Committee is made up of some of the nation's leading budget experts, including many of the past chairs and directors of the Congressional Budget Committees, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the Government Accountability Office, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Through comprehensive and objective research on key fiscal issues facing the country, the Committee has established itself as an honest broker, well-known and well-regarded among policymakers on both sides of the aisle.

About the West Health Policy Center and West Health

Solely funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations including the Gary and Mary West Foundation and Gary and Mary West Health Institute in San Diego, and the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C. West Health is dedicated to lowering healthcare costs to enable seniors to successfully age in place with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. Learn more at westhealth.org and follow @WestHealth.