Health care experts: U.S. ‘not getting what we pay for’

A wide range of health experts seems to agree that perhaps the greatest challenge to creating a true high performance health care system in the United States will be making health care spending more cost effective (Source: “U.S. ‘Not Getting What We Pay For’,” Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2008).

"Our health-care system is fraught with waste," says Gary Kaplan, chairman of  the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. He contends that as much as half of the $2.3 trillion spent annually on health care does nothing to improve health.

If President-elect Barack Obama is to keep his campaign promise of trimming every American’s annual health care costs by $2,500, experts say reforms will be needed to manage chronic illnesses better, encourage more adoption of electronic medical records, better care coordination and realigning financial incentives to reward success, among other strategies.

"There is more than enough money in the system," said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who runs the Center for Health Transformation. "We just are not spending it well."