A Strategy for Health Care Reform — Toward a Value-Based System

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 361; no. 2; pp. 109 - 112
• Main Author: Porter, Michael E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 09-07-2009
• Subjects: Cost Allocation; Cost control; Cost shifting; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Economic Competition; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health Care Reform - economics; Health Care Reform - methods; Health Care Reform - organization & administration; Health insurance; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Insurance coverage; Insurance, Health - economics; Medical Records Systems, Computerized; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Preventive medicine; Reimbursement Mechanisms; United States; Universal Coverage - economics; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp0904131

Michael Porter writes that the only way to truly contain costs in health care is to improve outcomes. He discusses how we can achieve universal coverage in a way that will support, rather than impede, a fundamental reorientation of the delivery system around value for patients.
Despite many waves of debate and piecemeal reforms, the U.S. health care system remains largely the same as it was decades ago. We have seen no convincing approach to changing the unsustainable trajectory of the system, much less to offsetting the rising costs of an aging population and new medical advances.
Today there is a new openness to changing a system that all agree is broken. What we need now is a clear national strategy that sets forth a comprehensive vision for the kind of health care system we want to achieve and a path for getting there. The central . . .