In a perspective by Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO, a third school of health reformers are discussed. These Systems Reformers believe "that the best way to bend the cost curve is not through external market incentives or regulatory controls, but from the inside out, by creating a smarter health care system with the information base, new delivery models and payment incentives that will improve quality and lower costs." This school of thought is in contrast to the previously two dominant ones, Regulators and Marketeers. Regulators are those who believed that the best way to slow increasing costs was to control the total resources going into the health care system: putting limits on the supply of medical professionals, technology and facilities; setting payment rates; or putting enough purchasing power in the hands of government to drive the right bargain with the health care industry. Marketeers, on the other hand, believed that competing health plans and information-empowered, prudently-purchasing consumers would drive down costs, especially if insurance were restructured to give people the right incentives.
Previously relegated to respected academic journals and conferences, Systems Reformers have gained hold of policymakers' attention and have infiltrated Washington, D.C. and its reform process.
Read the complete article at: http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/102909_altman.cfm
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