Health Care Topic: Costs & Economic Analysis

Apr 10, 2012

By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

Nine prominent physician groups today released lists of 45 common tests and treatments they say are often unnecessary and may even harm patients.


Mar 5, 2012

Center for Sustainable Health Spending colleagues George Miller, Ph.D. and Paul Hughes-Cromwick have the following thoughts.


Feb 16, 2012

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has a thousand pages of moving parts, and the relatively few that have rolled out are shedding sprockets across the landscape. This is deeply worrying, given that the stability of the nation’s health care system depends on the successful construction and launch of a vast fleet of new institutions before New Year’s Day, 2014.

Number-one selling point


Feb 14, 2012

Innovation in health care products, services, delivery models and processes has emerged as a popular solution to spiraling U.S. health care costs as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launches its $1 billion challenge to the public and private sectors to demonstrate and scale value-driven innovations that reduce health care costs while maintaining or improving quality. Innovations proven in pilot and demonstration projects offer the potential for improvements in health care efficiency, effectiveness and affordability.


Feb 7, 2012

As we embark upon a presidential campaign season, we can anticipate many lively debates on the topics of taxation and spending in this nation. As health spending in the United States accounts for 18 percent of our gross domestic product—a rate often called unsustainable—it is critical that we be clear-eyed in our understanding of the tradeoffs between tax revenues and a sustainable rate of national health spending.


Jan 27, 2012

Kudos to Robert Samuelson  (Op-Ed, January 16, 2012, The Washington Post) for bringing attention to health care spending in the U.S., and to the more subtle but potentially more important issue of the relationship between health spending and the economy—one that typically goes unrecognized as commentators equate health care with medical need.


Jan 6, 2012

How interested are consumers in the price of health care services? Results from our Consumer Opinion survey indicate that most consumers have never asked about the price of a health care service before getting care.  Fewer than 30 percent asked about price in the past year. Findings like these suggest that consumers are not in the habit of inquiring about cost. Some reasons for this include: not being motivated to ask about price (because someone else pays), not feeling comfortable asking about price, or not feeling certain as to where to get the information. 


Dec 20, 2011

Assuming the 2010 health care law survives through 2014, one of the big questions is the future of small-group insurance plans – those in which the employer chooses and administers a plan or plans for employees. The health insurance exchanges built into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) create mechanisms for small-group survival, but also powerful incentives for their dissolution.


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