Commonwealth Report: Healthcare reform could save money
It's possible to provide health insurance for uninsured Americans and also save healthcare costs, asserts a report released Friday by the Commonwealth Fund.
Technology would have to play a key role in streamlining administration and purchasing, the report suggests.
Authored by Sara R. Collins, Jennifer L. Nicholson and Sheila D. Rustgileading, the report analyzes health insurance bills put forth by members of the 110th Congress and President-elect Barack Obama. The authors conclude that several proposals could substantially reduce the number of uninsured Americans and would either reduce healthcare spending or add only modestly to annual healthcare expenditures.
Proposals by Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) call for implementing healthcare information technology as a way to boost quality and improve efficiencies to achieve savings.
About 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, are without health insurance.
Using analysis from the Lewin Group, the authors provide coverage and cost estimates for the proposed bills, which range from 48.9 million uninsured people gaining coverage to a net loss of coverage for 283,000 people.
Proposals could increase national health spending by as much as $64.1 billion or create savings of $58.1 billion.
The report is the first of a two-part analysis.
Among the plans analyzed, Lewin estimates that up to 48.9 million uninsured could be covered under a bill proposed by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.). At the other end of the spectrum, a bill introduced by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) would result in a net loss of coverage of 283,000.
According to Lewin's cost estimates, total health spending could be as high as $64.1 billion - under a bill proposed by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) - or it could result in a net savings of $58.1 billion under Stark's bill.
All coverage and cost estimates are for 2010 and are based on the assumption of full implementation in 2010.
"In the long run, it will not be productive to focus only on the impact of reform policies on federal, employers' or families' budgets," the authors wrote. "Instead, we must move forward while watching the number that really matters - the more than $2 trillion we spend collectively as a nation on healthcare each year. This ultimately determines the size and growth of all participants' budgets."
