Starting on the Path to a High Performance Health System: Analysis of Health System Reform Provisions of House of Representatives and Senate Health Reform Bills - The Commonwealth Fund

To achieve a high performance health system, health reform must go beyond ensuring affordable coverage to addressing health system changes that will improve Americans' health outcomes and the quality of health care, increase efficiency, and slow the growth in total health system costs. This report analyzes the health reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the reform provisions under consideration in the Senate that would affect providers’ financial incentives, the organization and delivery of health care services, investment in prevention and population health, and the capacity to achieve the best health care and health outcomes for all.

Congress has fashioned health reform plans that will fundamentally change our present course of rising costs and increasing numbers of uninsured and underinsured people. The bills represent a pragmatic approach to closing the gaps in insurance coverage by: building on a mix of employer coverage, other private plans, and a public plan in a health insurance exchange, or exchanges; strengthening Medicare; and expanding Medicaid. Most of the ideas that have been advanced by policymakers and health care opinion leaders to deal with rising costs are reflected in the bills.
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