Health Care Costs and Financing
The Costs of Doing Nothing: What's at Stake Without Health Care Reform
Research Report
Shelly-Ann Sinclair, AARP Public Policy Institute
November 2008
There is a lot at stake without health care reform. This AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI) chart book highlights the costs of inaction on health care reform from the perspective of consumers, businesses, society, and the nation. It also provides AARP’s framework for health security.
Charts and graphs illustrate the escalating costs of health care for individuals, employers, Medicare, and society as a whole. AARP’s framework includes options to:
- Build the infrastructure for expanded coverage
- Reform health care delivery
- Transform Medicare into a value purchaser
- Improve health status through healthy behaviors, health promotion, and public health
- Finance health and long-term care