This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
On the road to reform: Health care groups commit to drive down costs
Several health care interest groups met with President Obama on Monday and pledged to save more than $2 trillion in national health care costs during the next 10 years to aid in health care reform.
The Advanced Medical Technology Association, American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of American, America’s Health Insurance Plans and Service Employees International Union vowed to curb the annual health care spending growth rate by 1.5 percentage points each year between 2010 and 2019. Government officials say the move could save American families an average of $2,500 in a few years.
In a letter to the president, the coalition wrote, “We believe that all Americans should have access to affordable, high quality health care services. Thus, we applaud your strong commitment to reforming our nation’s health care system. The times demand and the nation expects that we, as health care leaders, work with you to reform the health care system.”
The coalition said that billions could be saved through disease prevention, aligning quality and efficiency incentives among providers, better coordinated care and more widespread use of health information technology. They also noted that reform should focus on obesity prevention.
The president called the effort a “watershed event” in the quest for health care reform and noted that such a meeting would not have happened a few years ago.
“The groups who are here today represent different constituencies with different sets of interests,” he said. “They have not always seen eye to eye with each other or with our government on what needs to be done to reform health care in this country. In fact, some of these groups were among the strongest critics of past plans for comprehensive reform.
“But what has brought us all together today is a recognition that we cannot continue down the same dangerous road we have been traveling for so many years; that costs are out of control; and that reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait,” Obama added. “It is a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health care reform in the ’90s, desperately need health care reform in 2009. And so does America.”
For more information: