The Rising Price of Health Care Costs American Families Thousands of Dollars a Year in Forgone Wages, Out-of-Pocket Costs, and Increased Taxes
In a new report,
"Rising health costs are the clearest sign of how dysfunctional the American health care sector is. We spend far more for the same--or worse--quality health care as our international peers, which has a tremendous impact on typical workers' wages and their ability to secure healthcare on the job," said Bivens. "Health care debates need to move beyond the Affordable Care Act, and the clearest remaining goal for policymakers is reining in the fast-rising costs of American health care--without sacrificing households' access to needed medical care."
Bivens argues that policymakers need to focus on controlling health care prices, not restricting use. While much attention has understandably focused on the ambitious vision of adopting a "single-payer" or "Medicare-for-all" plan, there are steps policymakers could adopt in the nearer term that would allow many of the virtues of single-payer to be realized piecemeal, and hence potentially more quickly. These could also potentially serve as useful stepping stones to even more ambitious reform. These steps include:
* Extend already existing public plans and incorporate a public option into ACA exchanges.
* Adopt all-payer rates--mandating that the same prices apply regardless of who is paying--to allow private insurers to benefit from the bargaining power of Medicare.
* Pursue policies that would diminish the intellectual property rights monopolies of key health care sectors, like pharmaceutical companies.
* Increase antitrust scrutiny of consolidation of hospitals and physician networks.
Outsized health spending in
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