Our health care system is ailing.  Increasingly, Americans are priced out of the health care system as healthcare costs spiral upward.  The Institute of Medicine estimates that every year, as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospitals from medical errors, with many more injured.  Research has shown 30 percent of health care costs, or $515 billion per year, to be adding no value to clinical outcomes.  Nearly half the time, patients do not receive the care they are supposed to receive.

These failings contribute to skyrocketing premiums and needlessly cost people their health and even their lives.  As more and more people question the long-term sustainability of our health care status quo, it is increasingly apparent that the system needs fundamental change to get more value from our health care dollars. 

We need to change the financial incentives in health care, so that providers are rewarded, not penalized, for improving patient outcomes.  We need to figure out how to bring the transformative power of information technology to every corner of our health care system.  We need to better develop the science of delivering health care. 

The House 21st Century Health Care Caucus is a bipartisan organization of Representatives committed to realizing this transformation of the health system to deliver higher quality, safer, more efficient, and better-coordinated care.  For more information, please contact Michael Zamore in the office of Co-Chairman Patrick Kennedy (202/225.4911) or Michael Baxter in the office of Co-Chairman Tim Murphy (202/225.2301).