Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views on Slowing the Growth of Health Care Costs

Leaders in health care and health care policy believe the U.S. must rein in the growth of health spending, and most believe it is possible over the next 10 years to maintain the current proportion of gross domestic product devoted to health care, the latest Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey finds. Nearly all respondents (96%) agreed that spending must slow, and large majorities expressed support for a range of strategies to reduce costs, including many of those outlined in President Obama’s budget blueprint. Large majorities of opinion leaders support such cost-reduction strategies as replacing Medicare’s “sustainable growth rate” mechanism with fundamental provider payment reform, introducing competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, and negotiating pharmaceutical drug prices. Opinion leaders also favor promoting growth of integrated delivery systems, raising payments for primary care services and medical homes, and establishing a center for comparative effectiveness.