The U.S. spends $2.7 trillion on health care each year, by far the most in the world. And our health outcomes generally aren’t better than other countries’. Fortunately, a number of policies have the potential to help control our health spending.
The Commonwealth Fund asked researchers at George Washington University to identify major areas of consensus among seven prominent proposals advanced in the past year to contain U.S. health costs and transform the health care delivery system. To learn what they found, view our new online matrix, Comparing Health Care Cost-Containment Proposals, which organizes the policy options by category and by payer. A companion blog post by The Commonwealth Fund's Stuart Guterman and Rachel Nuzum highlights the common themes, from increasing market competition to setting spending targets.