Abstract
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has a number of provisions that aimed at slowing the rate of growth of health care spending. This paper examines the most prominent of these provisions and finds them to be seriously flawed and unlikely to deliver savings as intended. They are either too weak or liable to compromise quality. Moreover, some of the most important drivers of health care costs, such as fee for service payments to physicians under Medicare or limitations on physician liability are not addressed adequately. Thus, it is unlikely that the PPACA in its present form will do much to reduce the growth rate of health care expenditures.
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This paper is based on a presentation in a panel entitled “Bending & Stretching: Will the Healthcare Cost Curve be Bent?” at NABE's Policy Conference on March 7, 2011.
*Gail R. Wilensky is a senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation. From 1990 to 1992, she served as the Administrator the Health Care Financing Administration, now CMS, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs and from 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan and has received several honorary degrees.
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Wilensky, G. Bending and Stretching the Health Care Cost Curve. Bus Econ 46, 163–166 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2011.12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2011.12