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Taking Action for America: Affordable, Quality Health Care

Business Roundtable CEOs believe maintaining an affordable, innovative and efficient health care system is a critical factor to ensuring a better quality of life for all Americans and a more productive and competitive U.S. workforce. 
 
Although the United States is recognized as a leader in medical technology, research and quality of care, the costs of its health care system are quickly becoming unsustainable. Constituting almost 18 percent of GDP in 2010 and rising at more than twice the annual rate of inflation, soaring health care costs place a growing burden on family, business and government budgets. A variety of factors endemic to the current U.S. health care system contribute to its escalating costs. Most notably, the U.S. health care system is fragmented, and consumers are insulated from the cost and quality of the services they are provided. Cost-effective prevention and wellness-based programs are often left undervalued, underused and underfunded. Medical care is dispensed and received with relatively little knowledge of its full costs and likely benefits, and doctors and patients are encouraged to pursue treatment more aggressively when earlier preventive measures would have been more effective. 
 
Government-funded Medicaid and Medicare entail significant inefficiencies and rapidly increasing costs, and providers are not rewarded for high-quality and cost-effective care. As the number of retirees grows, the cost of medical services remains unchecked and competition among private health care providers is limited, these programs will continue to exert a burden on taxpayers. 
 
Efficiency-enhancing and cost-cutting reforms can be introduced at several points in the U.S. health care delivery system while retaining its existing employer-based system, which provides health care coverage to 169 million Americans. Regulations should recognize the ability of market forces (primarily purchasers and consumers of services) to implement innovative solutions and bring down health care costs. 
 
BRT CEOs believe the private market can drive innovation in the way medical care is dispensed so that consumers can have information on the cost, benefits and outcomes related to the quality of care from physicians and hospitals readily available to enable them to make informed decisions. Moving rapidly toward a health care system that uses electronic records will significantly reduce health care costs. In addition, addressing the issue of medical liability has significant potential to cut costs.
 
Ultimately, reforms that unleash private market innovation and preserve the ability of employers to offer affordable health benefits will curb costs and allow savings to be passed down to consumers, the business community and government. If America gets health reform right, families win, and the nation becomes more secure economically and financially. 

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