Keynote Speaker: Alan Sager, Professor of Health Policy & Management at Boston University.
This was a second in the series of Health Care Forums and focused on the cost of health care.
The ultimate aim of health-care policy is good care at affordable prices. Yet, health care spending has grown much faster than the economy, driving the unsustainable costs of federal health programs, exploding state Medicaid budgets, and elevating health care to nearly one-fifth of the GNP. As a country, we have never been particularly innovative or successful in our efforts to address the rising costs.
As experts agree, controlling costs while reinventing the health care system is a pursuit that requires collaboration among all key stakeholders. Within this context, state policymakers have a unique opportunity to play a significant role in lowering costs and can function as a proving ground for new approaches and new efficiencies. With the participation of Rhode Island’s own key stakeholders, this forum explored some of the most promising approaches from both private, commercial markets and in state and public sector programs-all intended to point the way toward improved health care affordability.
Also participating on the panel were Elizabeth Roberts (Director of Health and Human Services), Stephen Farrell (CEO of United Healthcare), and Mark Marcantano (President and COO of Women and Infants Hospital). Kristen Gourlay from Rhode Island Public Radio moderated the panel.