The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action) released a report analyzing how health care modernizations will affect our federal budget. After reading through the report in detail, here is a brief overview of our current situation, our future reform expectations, and a estimation of the future.
The problem?
Health care is going to (and is) cost us a fortune if something doesn’t change. It currently costs about 16 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) and we are currently wasting about $700 billion dollars a year on ineffective solutions. At this rate there is no way we are going to be able to afford health care, and if we don’t change now, we won’t be able to afford health care reform either.
The Solution?
According to the CAP Action report health care needs to be modernized and the federal government has been planning a basic four step plan that summarizes the changes these include, “investing in infrastructure; measuring what is done and how well it is performed; rewarding high-value care, not just high-volume care; and realigning consumer incentives to encourage better health behavior.”
The Results?
Though unknown, the expected results of modernizing health care is pretty awesome. These include the increasing the productivity growth in health care by a maximum of 2 percentage points within 4-5 years, saving $6billion in 10 years and $9 trillion in 25 years federally and offsetting the cost of insurance for all (yes ALL) Americans.
To get a detailed look at modernizing health care and saving a lot of money, read the full report at the CAP Action Fund online.
