USA - State of Health Care - Jan.21/2011
America’s Health Care System in State of
Decline
“Health care in the United States is facing an
unprecedented challenge of affordability and
sustainability,” continued Dr. Stubbs. “Yet a
highly-partisan and polarized debate over
health care reform legislation regrettably has
taken the country’s ‘eye off the ball’—from
the urgency of implementing reforms.”
“For decades, we have seen Washington
politicians decide that health care reform is
too hard, and we may be on the brink of seeing
this happen once again,” observed Bob Doherty,
ACP’s Senior Vice President of Governmental
Affairs and Public Policy. “But this time, we
know what the consequences will be. Affordable
health care will be out of reach for many
middle class families. One out of five of us
will be uninsured. We won’t be able to find a
primary care doctor. And increased Medicare
and Medicaid spending will create an
unprecedented fiscal and budget crisis.”
As a path for moving forward on health care
reform ACP recommended that:
President Obama should reach out to both
Republican and Democratic members of Congress
to develop bipartisan proposals to reduce the
costs associated with the medical liability
tort system, and to work together on other
issues that have support across the political
parties, such as increasing the numbers of
primary care physicians;
Congress should give preferred funding for
discretionary programs to advance the goals of
expanding coverage, ensure a sufficient supply
of primary care physicians, and encourage
testing and dissemination of models to improve
health care delivery;
Congress must permanently end the cycle of
Medicare physician payment cuts caused by the
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula; and,
President Obama should use his executive
authority to require that all health-related
federal agencies and private sector
contractors develop plans to increase the
numbers of primary care physicians and reduce
the time that clinicians and patients spend on
health plan administration.
The American College of Physicians is the
largest medical specialty organization and the
second-largest physician group in the United
States.
Decline
“Health care in the United States is facing an
unprecedented challenge of affordability and
sustainability,” continued Dr. Stubbs. “Yet a
highly-partisan and polarized debate over
health care reform legislation regrettably has
taken the country’s ‘eye off the ball’—from
the urgency of implementing reforms.”
“For decades, we have seen Washington
politicians decide that health care reform is
too hard, and we may be on the brink of seeing
this happen once again,” observed Bob Doherty,
ACP’s Senior Vice President of Governmental
Affairs and Public Policy. “But this time, we
know what the consequences will be. Affordable
health care will be out of reach for many
middle class families. One out of five of us
will be uninsured. We won’t be able to find a
primary care doctor. And increased Medicare
and Medicaid spending will create an
unprecedented fiscal and budget crisis.”
As a path for moving forward on health care
reform ACP recommended that:
President Obama should reach out to both
Republican and Democratic members of Congress
to develop bipartisan proposals to reduce the
costs associated with the medical liability
tort system, and to work together on other
issues that have support across the political
parties, such as increasing the numbers of
primary care physicians;
Congress should give preferred funding for
discretionary programs to advance the goals of
expanding coverage, ensure a sufficient supply
of primary care physicians, and encourage
testing and dissemination of models to improve
health care delivery;
Congress must permanently end the cycle of
Medicare physician payment cuts caused by the
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula; and,
President Obama should use his executive
authority to require that all health-related
federal agencies and private sector
contractors develop plans to increase the
numbers of primary care physicians and reduce
the time that clinicians and patients spend on
health plan administration.
The American College of Physicians is the
largest medical specialty organization and the
second-largest physician group in the United
States.
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