CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER HEALTH CARE

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CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER HEALTH CARE

• Opportunity NOW Health Care Justice For All
• One Businessmans Perspective On Health Care
  Reform
• 10h Annual Conference
• October 12, 2006
• Ray Werntz, Senior Consultant
• HPN WorldWide

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Business Perspective On Health Care Reform

• Todays Key Takeaways
• ReformChange for the better
• US health care is anchored by employment-based
  coverage Medicaid and Medicare fill the gaps.
  Businesses prefer to concentrate on their own
  benefit plans and avoid policy activism
• US health care system is pluralistic the money
  comes from payers with different expectations.
  The result is inertia with regard to policy fixes
  affecting access, quality and affordability
• Do we want leadership from the business community
  and what will it take to get it?

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ReformChange for the Better

• What Needs to Change
• High Costs That Threaten America's Global
  Competitiveness and the Financial Security of
  Workers and Their Families
• Inconsistent Quality and Widespread Medical
  Errors that Elevate Costs and Compromise Personal
  Health
• Tens of Millions of Americans Who Have Little or
  No Access to Appropriate Health Care
• An Unacceptable ROI from Expenditures Amounting
  to More Per Capita than any Other Country Not
  Reflected in Population Health or Satisfaction
  Levels

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Employment-Based Coverage Anchors the US Health
Care System

• The Facts
• Employers and Unions pay less than 1/3 of the
  dollars for 180 million Americans
• Policy makers are reluctant to force employers to
  change
• Public programs seek to fill in the gaps caused
  by employer discretion
• Employers base their benefit decisions on
  business considerations, not policy concerns
• Despite problems with access, employers innovate
  with regard to population health management,
  quality, information technology, employee
  education and value purchasing

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Pluralistic Financing

• Pluralisms Characteristics
• Uniquely American
• Three categories of payers
• Employers and Unions
• State and Federal Governments
• Individuals-of which 45 million are uninsured
• Each has different priorities with regard to
  costs, quality and access that frustrates
  cooperation
• The result is that there is no system, but a
  myriad of state and local sub systems

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The Implications of Pluralism
Millions of Private Group Sponsors
Millions of Individual Sponsors
Fewer Public sponsors
Providers
Access?
Services Goals
Affordability?
Quality/Improved Health?
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Is Business Activism/Leadership In Health Care
Reform A Good Thing?

• What Do We Gain?
• Health care as a means and not an end
• Greater emphasis on market forces, consumerism,
  health improvement and quality
• Recognition that health, health care and economic
  prosperity are interrelated
• What Do We lose?
• Health care as an end in itself
• Price regulation
• Access as a number 1 priority

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How Do We Activate Business Activism/Leadership?

• Make the Business Case
• Convince business that it cannot afford not to
  play a leadership role in health care reform
  strategies that simultaneously address access,
  quality and affordability