The Hill News

The Joint Select Committee is tasked with the difficult challenge of cutting $1.2 trillion or more of overall government spending, just as the first wave of baby boomers reach retirement age. Health care spending, already outpacing our economy, is expected to grow even more.

Curbing this growth in health care spending is absolutely necessary for all of us, yet we cannot accomplish this without radical rethinking of how we provide care.  New legislation should center on implementing innovative solutions that create this new reality for how health care is delivered.
 
Treating patients with chronic conditions accounts for 85% of total health care costs, and two in five seniors 65 and over have three or more chronic conditions. If we continue to focus only on reactively treating sickness and injury, nothing will change.  To reduce health care spending, we must more efficiently provide for these high-cost patients and make it easier for them to receiv! e proactive, preventive care.  What better place than in the home?

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