In HCCI’s publication in Health Affairs Blog, we examine the case for systemic health system transparency and directing changes towards key stakeholders.
From the article:
“Health care costs strain the budgets of families, businesses, and governments, leaving less room for other spending and forcing painful tradeoffs. In 2017, the United States spent $3.5 trillion on health care – nearly 1 out of 5 dollars. Among people who get health insurance from their jobs, on average, spending on health care (not including premiums) grew 25 percent faster than the economy each year between 2013 and 2017, with most of the growth in spending caused by higher prices, and not increased utilization.
Despite the magnitude of health care spending and the significance of its impact, there is no definitive source of information that would allow stakeholders to better understand how the US health care system is performing. Indeed, insights into costs and spending are segmented, limited by information to which individual stakeholders have access. Researchers have traditionally been able to access Medicare data, and, as of November 2019, will have access to Medicaid data (albeit of indeterminate quality). However, data that allow for meaningful insights on the employer-sponsored population, which still covers more than 160 million people, were, historically, limited — until the creation of the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) in 2011.”