White House Health Care Forum

AARP CEO Bill Novelli, Business Roundtable President John Castellani, National Federation of Independent Business CEO Dan Danner and SEIU President Andy Stern were participants in last week’s White House forum on health care reform.

Bill Novelli released the following statement before the event.

Our members are telling us that health care reform is urgent and must be our top priority. Health care costs too much, makes too many mistakes, and often returns little value for our money. We cannot fix our broken economy if we do not fix our broken health care system.

Comprehensive reform to make affordable coverage options available to everyone is especially urgent for AARP’s 50- to 64-year-old members. This is the fastest growing part of the uninsured population, with 7 million people who don’t have access to health care. This includes people who did everything right but lost their coverage when they lost their jobs or retiree health benefits, or who are left behind because they tend to have preexisting conditions that make coverage in the individual or small group market unaffordable.

Reform must change how we deliver care, especially for chronic conditions. Seventy-five percent of all Medicare spending goes to treat just 5 chronic conditions. Revising incentives to reward coordination and quality—rather than quantity—of care can improve outcomes and lower costs.

Reform must also increase health promotion and disease prevention so we focus more on keeping people well and not just on treating them after they get sick.

While many are quick to focus on the problem of unsustainable costs in Medicare and Medicaid, this is actually a symptom of dysfunction throughout our health care system. We need fundamental reform to strengthen these programs and use them to drive change throughout the health care system.

The Divided We Fail allies—AARP, Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Business and Service Employees International Union—stand ready to help the Administration ensure enactment of comprehensive health reform this year.