Investing now in information technology and other tools needed to modernize the nation's healthcare system will pay dividends in lower costs and greater productivity in the future, said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.
The economic crisis the country now faces has presented President Barack Obama and Congress with "an historic opportunity" to fix the nation's broken healthcare system, Davis wrote in "You Can Get There from Here: Mapping the Way to a Transformed U.S. Health System."
According to Davis, a nationally recognized economist, the nation's healthcare crisis and economic crisis have become "inextricably intertwined."
"President Barack Obama has noted, rightly, that healthcare reform is integral to economic recovery," she said.
Davis' formula for improving the nation's healthcare system is similar to that already outlined by Obama: provide affordable health coverage for all, reform provider payment, organize care delivery, invest in healthcare IT and ensure strong federal leadership.
"Ours is the only industrialized nation that fails to ensure that all its citizens have access to affordable healthcare," she said.
"We are slipping further behind what other countries achieve with their more modest investment in healthcare. The U.S. now ranks 19th out of a group of 19 major industrialized countries on an important measure of health system performance: mortality amenable to medical care," she said. "If we did as well as the best-performing countries, we would have 100,000 fewer deaths each year."
Many families – including those with insurance – are struggling to pay their share of premiums and medical expenses. Two-thirds of all adults under age 65 report being uninsured or underinsured, forgoing needed care or struggling to pay medical bills or accumulated medical debt, according to Davis.
The poor performance of the U.S. healthcare system also adds to the economic crisis, she added. Thee United States spends twice as much per person as other major industrialized countries, she said, saddling American businesses – especially those with aging workforces – with high expenses.
