Summary
High U.S. Healthcare Costs: What Might Congress Do?
Presented jointly with POLITICO LLC
The United States spends more on health care per capita than other developed countries — much more. One recent paper estimated that U.S. costs were 25 percent higher than the next closest country. Recent polls have shown that reducing health care costs has emerged as one of the public’s top priorities for President Trump and the new Congress. Polls also show that health care costs are the leading pocketbook issue for families. To date, most discussion has been about prescription drug costs, but polling data suggest that the issue is likely to broaden as we approach the 2020 election to include debates on increasing government intervention vs. encouraging private sector competition to reduce costs. What might a divided Congress do? Drawing on a newly released poll by POLITICO and the Harvard Chan School, a panel of experts considered various solutions that have emerged to reduce health care costs.
Part of: Policy Controversies.
Presented jointly with POLITICO LLC
Background Articles
- Poll: The Public and High U.S. Health Care Costs
POLITICO and Harvard Chan - Poll: Americans blame pharma, insurers and providers for high health costs
POLITICO - Obamacare fight obscures America’s real health care crisis: Money
POLITICO
Image Credit: iStock/ Squaredpixels
