Critical Condition: The State of the Union’s Health Care
Washington,
Apr 18, 2007 -
Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) today released a report, Critical Condition: The State of the Union’s Health Care, detailing some of the greatest challenges facing the nation's health care system. The document focuses on ten major contributors to increasing costs, and ten recommendations for Congressional action.
“Our health care system must be reformed and be more affordable and accessible to all Americans,” Congressman Murphy said. “The United States leads the world in medical research, our hospitals use 21st Century medical technology and we have the best doctors, nurses and providers. However, massive amounts of paperwork, inefficiencies, and errors are leading to rapidly rising expenses. As a result, families, businesses, and the federal government are having difficulty keeping pace. Families are having trouble making ends meet, employers are unable to remain competitive, and health care costs are creating a massive federal deficit.”
Both public and private health care spending now exceeds $2 trillion annually, with health care costs consuming 16 percent of the nation's total economic output or gross domestic product. In fiscal year 2005, the federal government spent over 45 percent of its mandatory spending on health care programs.
“To deal with growing costs, policymakers have focused on dealing with ‘who’ pays for the care, but this approach does not deal with the root causes of cost increases,” Murphy continued. “Fixing the system is not about ‘who’ is paying, it is about ‘what’ we are paying for. A broken system is not fixed by shifting payment to families, employers or taxpayers. Affordability must begin with fundamental reforms to quality and accessibility.”
The ten areas of reform are: 1) improving primary prevention; 2) reducing health care infection rates; 3) expanding access to community health centers; 4) increasing transparency of information within the health care system; 5) improving the accuracy of and secure access to medical records; 6) utilizing care management of chronic diseases; 7) removing barriers to mental health care; 8) eliminating defensive medicine; 9) lowering the cost of prescription drugs and 10) reducing obesity. Specific recommendations to reduce errors and improve care are offered for each category.
“The money Congress will save from these reforms far outweighs the money spent. By keeping in mind these 10 principles for change we can lower health care costs by at least $300 billion per year,” Murphy concluded. “If these fundamental reforms do not occur, it is clear that costs of health care will continue to increase dramatically over the next decade costing more lives, more money and putting care out of reach of even more Americans.”
For a copy of Critical Condition: The State of the Union's Health Care please call Congressman Murphy’s District Office at (412) 344-5583 or visit his website at http://murphy.house.gov/.
