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Klobuchar Convenes National Summit on Health Care Reform

Highlights Importance of Reining in Costs to Improve Quality & Affordability

November 25, 2008

Minneapolis, MN – A national health care reform summit convened by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar highlighted the importance of reining in costs to improve quality and affordability in America’s health care system.
 
Entitled “Prescription for Reform,” the summit at the University of Minnesota brought together national health care leaders – including Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Denis Cortese, former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger and Neera Tanden, who served as domestic policy director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign
 
“With a new presidential administration and a new Congress,” Klobuchar said, “We have a new opportunity to move forward with meaningful health care reform.  The expected nomination of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services is a clear sign of how important this will be for the new administration.”
 
Klobuchar’s interest in health care reform stems from her role on the Joint Economic Committee, which is responsible for reporting on current economic conditions and proposing policies that will strengthen the American economy.
 
“We can’t continue with business as usual,” said Klobuchar.  “Continued inflation in health care costs is unsustainable, because it undermines our economy and will leave even more Americans without health coverage.  If we don’t get a handle on health care spending, then it will push aside other vital national priorities, including education, infrastructure and most everything else.”
 
Klobuchar added: “The summit discussion highlighted the fact that meaningful health care reform is both possible and necessary, and we already know a great deal about how to get it right because Minnesota institutions like the Mayo Clinic and HealthPartners are showing us the way.”
 
At $2.3 trillion per year, health care spending currently represents about 16 percent of the American economy.  If it continues to rise at the current rate, health care spending will account for about 22 percent of America’s economic activity by 2020.
 
Klobuchar noted that 47 million Americans lack health coverage, and millions more struggle to afford the coverage they have.  Meanwhile, businesses are squeezed on the bottom line, forced to cut back or drop coverage for their workers.
 
The summit meeting identified some of the best opportunities for health care reform.  Participants focused on how to strengthen America’s health care system so it delivers the best quality at the best price, providing a sustainable foundation to expand access and control costs.
 
Much of the discussion focused on Medicare, which provides health coverage for 44 million seniors and disabled Americans.  It is the nation’s largest single purchaser of health care.
 
Despite periodic attempts at reform, Klobuchar said, Medicare still pays providers based on quantity of services, not quality or outcomes.  More tests and more surgeries mean more money, even if they do nothing to improve a patient’s condition. 
 
According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly $700 billion per year in health care services do not improve health outcomes.  That represents nearly one-third of all health care spending.
 
Speaking at the summit, Dr. Jack Wennberg of Dartmouth Medical School highlighted research indicating that, in health care, supply actually drives demand.  More doctors, more clinics, more hospitals, more high-tech equipment, more specialists – all of it means more medical care, whether it is really needed or not.
 
The result is that Medicare pays vastly more in some parts of the country than it does in others – even though medical care is no better and, in some ways, worse.  States that deliver excessive and expensive medical care are, in effect, rewarded for these practices, while more cost-effective states like Minnesota are punished.
 
The Dartmouth research found that the Mayo Clinic delivers high-quality care in a remarkably cost-effective manner.  In fact, Medicare could save as much as $50 billion over five years if all hospitals cared for dying, chronically ill patients in the same way that the Mayo Clinic does.
 
“The gold standard in health care provided by Mayo turns out to be penny wise as well,” said Klobuchar
 
Some ideas for rewarding “value over volume” include creating much better incentives for providers to deliver cost-effective care by following best treatment practices; encouraging patient-centered coordinated care; strengthening the role of primary care; and making better use of information technology to reduce not only administrative waste, but also expensive and even life-threatening medical errors.
 
Klobuchar suggested that a value-oriented approach to health care transcends partisan boundaries and provides a common ground for fiscal conservatives and economic liberals.
 
“Neither market-oriented reforms nor government-oriented reforms will succeed unless we apply the best cost/quality formula,” said Klobuchar.  “We won’t be able to expand coverage, make health care more affordable or keep government spending in line unless we get this right.”

Other participants at the summit included:
 

• Dr. Denis Cortese, President and CEO of the Mayo Clinic
• Karen Davis, Ph.D., President of The Commonwealth Fund
• Neera Tanden, Domestic Policy Director, Obama Presidential Campaign, current member of President-Elect Obama’s transition team
• Former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger, Chair of the National Institute of Health Policy
• Dr. Bruce Hamory, Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer Emeritus of Geisinger Health System (Pennsylvania)
• Dr. George Isham, Medical Director and Chief Health Officer of HealthPartners (Minnesota)
• Dr. Jack Wennberg, Director of the Center for Clinical and Evaluative Services, Dartmouth University Medical School
• Ellen-Marie Whelan, Ph.D., Senior Health Policy Analyst and Associate Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress

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