Health And Budget Reform As Handmaidens

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 633 - 644
• Main Authors: Steuerle, C. Eugene, Bovbjerg, Randall R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Health Affairs 01-05-2008; The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE
• Subjects: Budgets; Budgets - legislation & jurisprudence; Cost control; Cost Sharing - legislation & jurisprudence; Decision Making; Federal budget; Financing, Government - legislation & jurisprudence; Financing, Government - methods; Group insurance; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health Care Reform - economics; Health Care Reform - legislation & jurisprudence; Health Expenditures - trends; Health policy; Humans; Insurance, Health - economics; Insurance, Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Medicaid; Medicare; Priorities; Reforms; Subsidies; Tax increases; Uninsured people; United States; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.3.633

Meeting almost any new major federal budget priority--for children, the elderly, energy independence, budget balance, or even the uninsured--soon will be nearly impossible if health costs grow as projected. Budget-driven reforms in health policy, therefore, are almost inevitable for any president seeking to set new national priorities. Those health reforms must confront the fundamental budgetary flaw of health policy: creation of decision-making structures and incentives that look mainly to benefits while shifting costs freely to others. All players need more reliable mechanisms for making choices reasonably, albeit no longer for open-ended consumption of care or payment to providers.