The U.S. remains locked in a decades-long controversy over how citizens should pay for healthcare, what healthcare should cost, who should pay, how much, and what incentives, if any, should be “paid” to patients who stay well (or try to).
Storified by TEDMED ·
Mon, Feb 24 2014 14:09:22
Tedmed
How do we foster a thoughtful, civil dialogue that focuses on science and
the public interest, in a way that has a reasonable chance of eventually
creating an approach we can all support?
Members of the Great Challenge Team, Addressing Healthcare Costs,
gathered on Google + Hangout to discuss the topic in a virtual
roundtable event on February 7. Watch the video below.
TEDMED Great Challenges: Addressing Healthcare Costs and Payment Systems ·
Catherine Andrews
In
1980, health care expenditures in the United States reached $256 billion
dollars. Thirty years later in 2010, healthcare costs increased to $2.6
trillion dollars. While trends show that over the last couple of years
healthcare costs are slowing down, there is still great concern about
the amount we spend on healthcare and how those costs get shifted and
passed on to patients in the form of rising insurance premiums and costs.
Liveluvcreate
“I think our culture, at least for quite a long time, has
been that we don’t talk about costs,” says Ron Pollack, Executive
Director at Families USA. “The doctor says this is what I suggest you
receive in terms of care and that’s it. There’s no questioning about the
efficacy of the treatment, there’s no question about what the costs are
going to be and we’ve got to improve consciousness about what works and
what the costs are and that really is a total change in culture.”
Jeanne
Pinder, Founder & CEO of clearhealthcosts.com, an online service
that supplies consumers with information about prices for medical
procedures, says that young people in their 20s and 30s are already
starting to implement that culture change by using decision aids to
check and compare prices of medical
services on mobile devices. “We find that about a third of our traffic
comes from the handhelds, that people are actually going to this and
shopping,” says Pinder. “They may be people who directly have skin in
the game because they are uninsured or they have a higher deductible...having the skills and the tools to shop with this thing are really
going to change the game for everybody.”
Americanbuilt
Anne
Gauthier, Senior Program Director at National Academy for State Health
Policy, says that the new state health insurance exchange policy,
required under the Affordable Care Act, will also help reduce costs and
allow for more transparency. “I think there will be a great opportunity
for exchanges to influence in a very positive way, rewarding health
plans that take on some of the key reforms that are going to help us get
to better affordable quality care.”
Among
the various suggestions for reducing healthcare costs, putting
information and responsibility in the hands of the patient consumers is
what Jeanne Pinder says is most important. “The system that we’ve
established kind of deprives anybody and everybody of responsibility,”
says Pinder, “Being able to fix that, I think, is the thing that we’re
talking about here.”
Liveluvcreate
Twitter conversation around the #greatchallenges hashtag during the live Addressing Healthcare Costs event was lively.
In 1980, we spent $256B on #healthcare. Now costs are upwards of $2.6 TRILLION. Just wow. #greatchallenges @TEDMED
— Susanna.J.Smith ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:06:29
Q: Would we benefit from standard salaries? Chapin White from @HSCHANGE "salaries are pretty small slice of pie" #greatchallenges
— TEDMED ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:08:25
Q. What can patients/consumers do to help contain healthcare costs? Thank you. #GreatChallenges @TedMed
— Elin Silveous ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:09:54
Patients CAN make their own healthcare cost decisions if given the option! Novel ideas @TEDMED #greatchallenges
— MedPipeline ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:12:23
Ron Pollack @FamiliesUSA & Jeanne Pinder @chcosts push transparency of #healthcare costs as 1 way to lower spending #greatchallenges @TEDMED
— Susanna.J.Smith ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:14:18
"we are deeply acculturated to 'more is better'" @TEDMED #greatchallenges yes. no more #antibiotics for a #cold!
— CareSimple ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:15:18
Liveluvcreate
@tedmed YES! Ron Pollack makes an incredible point, we need to empower patients in their own care. #greatchallenges
— Cristina Romagnoli ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:16:05
@a_cup_a_day @TEDMED #EHRs help get patients involved & help reduce costs by eliminating unnecessary repetitive procedures. #GreatChallenges
— LHCQF ·
Thu, Feb 07 2013 10:26:41