C O U N C I L ON HEALTH CARE SPENDING & VALUE

I. Introduction

For more than forty years, questions about health care spending levels and growth have been an important focus of Health Affairs. In the words of the journal’s founding editor, John Iglehart, “From our very launch in 1981, costs and how they may be responsibly restrained have been a driving theme of Project HOPE’s eclectic journal.”1

  Recently, the journal announced a first-ofits- kind project intended to build on its rich history of scholarship on health care spending.2 The Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value was charged with recommending ways that the United States can take a deliberate approach to moderating health care spending growth while maximizing value.3 The council is a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary, expert working group under the leadership of cochairs William Frist and Margaret Hamburg.

 This report contains the council’s recommendations and is the culmination of a multiyear process during which the twenty-two council members studied the literature and consulted with experts on drivers of US health care spending and a wide variety of proposed interventions.

 This, the council’s final report, accomplishes two goals: through its supporting research, it synthesizes literature about how much the US spends on health care, the value of that spending, and the likely impact of various interventions; and it provides recommendations to public and private stakeholders on how to achieve higher-value health care spending and growth in the US.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY