Better Health Care at Lower Cost: State & Federal Perspectives
Thursday, December 13, 2012
9 to 10am
[Image Description: A logo in dark blue and white text that reads “Center for American Progress” sitting on a rendering of the American flag, also in white.]
Opening remarks:
Raj Goyle, Senior Advisor, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
Panelists:
Nirav R. Shah, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner, New York State Department of Health
Herbert Pardes, M.D., Executive Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Vice Provost of Global Initiatives, University of Pennsylvania
Maura Calsyn, Associate Director, Health Policy, Center for American Progress
The Affordable Care Act is the most far-reaching effort to date to reduce health care costs while improving quality and expanding access—the so-called “triple aim.” Yet the effect of health care costs on state and federal budgets remains a concern. Many recent proposals would simply shift federal spending to individuals, businesses, and states—which would fail to solve the problem while rationing care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
At the event, a panel of health care experts discussed alternative strategies. Dr. Nirav R. Shah discussed Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Medicaid reforms, which achieved more than $4 billion in savings in one year while improving quality of care and increasing enrollment by 154,000 people. Dr. Herbert Pardes compared and contrasted different cost containment strategies and their impacts on hospitals and health care providers. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel and Maura Calsyn provided a federal perspective and discussed the Center’s Senior Protection Plan in anticipation of the looming “fiscal cliff.” The Senior Protection Plan is the Center’s contribution to the debate over entitlement reform and federal health care savings. It would produce federal savings of about $385 billion over ten years and includes a number of reforms to bend the cost curve over the long term.