Evaluating Health Care System Reforms

• Cost, access, and quality challenges—together with obstacles to achieving efficiency—argue for fundamental system reform.

• A comprehensive review and reassessment of the overall health care system raises the following questions:

  • What are societal needs versus individual wants in our health care system?
  • Who—among individuals, employers, and governments—should be responsible for paying for health care?
  • Where can we find our most acute access, cost, and quality challenges? (e.g., What regions show patterns of underuse or overuse of medical services?)
  • How much of health care costs can government, employers, and individuals afford and sustain over time?
  • When are we going to get started, as the challenge gets bigger everyday and any delay compounds the problems?