Comptroller General's Forum on Health Care: Unsustainable Trends Necessitate Comprehensive and Fundamental Reforms to Control Spending and Improve Value

Unrelenting growth in health care spending has put pressure on policymakers to seek health care system reforms. The stress comes partly from a wide gap in expectations between what health care Americans want and what the nation can afford and sustain. GAO's Health Care Forum was held on January 13, 2004, to find ways to elevate the nation's understanding of health care cost, access, and quality challenges. Forum attendees included a select group of experts, business leaders, and public officials. The forum's plenary speakers discussed issues associated with health care costs and value, including spending drivers, long-term affordability, and the effect of differences across the country in medical practices. Participants in breakout sessions led by the forum's faculty of experts deliberated on the merits of the various health care reform strategies, including focusing on consumer cost sensitivity, targeting high-cost patients, reducing unwarranted variation in medical practices, and managing technology to control spending growth. GAO has developed a series of questions to evaluate all health care reform proposals, based in part, on the results of this forum.