New Podcast: Health Care Abroad and Reform at Home--Controlling Health Care Costs
<p>The latest podcast in the <a href="/Multimedia-Center/Podcasts.aspx?episode=Health+Care+Abroad+and+Reform+at+Home+Controlling+Health+Care+Costs&podcast=New+Directions+in+Health+Care" target="_blank">New Directions in Health Care</a> 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. The wide-ranging discussion features Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund; Gerard Anderson, professor of health policy and management and professor of international health at Johns Hopkins University; Julian Le Grand, professor of social policy at the London School of Economics; and Jane Hill, professor of health economics at the University of Technology, Sydney.</p>
<p>Anderson points out that doctors' visits, prescription drugs, and medical procedures cost far more in the U.S. than in other countries, without yielding measurably better outcomes. Le Grand and Hill discuss efforts in the U.K. and Australia to promote cost-effective care. And Davis 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.</p>
<p>Davis concludes that the U.S. must get a handle on health care spending. "If we do nothing, instead of spending 17 percent of our total economy on health care and not getting the best results, we’ll be spending 21 percent of our total gross domestic product and still not getting the best results. So when you really look at it, you conclude the worst option is to do nothing."</p>