health reform bills

The Costs of Failure: Economic Consequences of Failure to Enact Nixon, Carter, and Clinton Health Reforms

This examination of trends in health spending over the past 50 years shows that if health reform measures proposed by previous presidents had been enacted and slowed the growth in spending by as little as 1 or 1.5 percentage points annually, spending trends in the U.S. would have been closer to those seen in other major industrialized countries and fewer adverse health consequences and economic burdens would have been borne by American families, businesses, and government. See related article in the New York Times.

How Health Reform Legislation Will Affect Medicare Beneficiaries

March 17, 2010 - This issue brief examines the provisions in the pending legislation and how each one would work to improve benefits, extend the fiscal solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, reduce pressure on the federal budget, and contribute to moving the health care system toward better access to care, improved quality, and greater efficiency.

Transparency and Public Reporting Are Essential for a Safe Health Care System

March 17, 2010 - What will it take to motivate hospitals to do what we know works to make health care safer? Of the three major approaches to improving patient safety—regulation/accreditation, financial incentives, and public reporting—the most promising is public reporting of performance information and feedback to providers.

Rethinking the Management of Foundation Endowments

March 15, 2010 - As the implications of the 2008–09 financial crisis for the world economy and markets have become clearer, many foundation executives and investment committees are reassessing their approach to endowment management.

Widespread Adoption of Information Technology in Primary Care Physician Offices in Denmark: A Case Study

March 11, 2010 - Denmark is one of the world's leading countries in the use of health care technology. Virtually all Danish primary care physicians have electronic medical records with full clinical functionality.

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Health Reform

Updated Interactive Tables on Health System and Insurance Reforms

We have updated our interactive tables for side-by-side comparisons of the system reforms and insurance coverage provisions in the congressional health reform bills to include President Obama's proposal.

International Health Policy Center

Browse Publications and Create Custom Charts

Visit the new International Health Policy Center to browse content by country or topic and create custom tables and charts using data from our international health policy surveys from 2006 to 2009.

Commission on a High Performance Health System

Making Health Reform Work for Families and Businesses

This statement from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System calls for a comprehensive, integrated approach to health system reform to reverse the negative trends in U.S. health system performance and provide a more secure future for U.S. families and businesses.

Featured Podcast

Health Care Abroad and Reform at Home—Controlling Health Care Costs

This episode of the New Directions in Health Care series looks at the costs of providing medical services in other parts of the world and considers how health care reform might change the bottom line in this country. It explores ways in which proposed health reforms in Congress—such as an emphasis on primary care and new approaches to delivery and payment—could help ensure value for our health care dollars.

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Fund Blog

What's at Issue: Making Coverage Affordable for Every American

The White House's "Health Care Summit" on February 25 identified many areas of common cause between President Obama and members of Congress. They agreed broadly on the goals for reform and on many specifics, but a fundamental divide remains over how to make coverage affordable for every American and find a way to pay for it.

State Data Center

Interactive U.S. Map Offers State Rankings and Results

Visit an interactive map to view state-specific rankings and results compared to benchmarks, and to view the number of lives and dollars each state could save by achieving benchmark levels of performance. You can also compare states and generate custom tables and bar charts.

States in Action: Expanding Access to Primary Care

Federal and state efforts to enhance access to basic care, involving efforts to expand and leverage the primary care workforce and to develop and test new models of care delivery.

Why Not the Best?

A Health Care Quality Improvement Resource

WhyNotTheBest.org is a new resource from The Commonwealth Fund, offering easily accessible, comparative information on health care performance for providers, researchers, and other professionals.