SOA Essay: Can We Capture Potential Health Care Savings Without A Federal Takeover?

Most proposals for reforming the U.S. health care system of today focus on reducing the high cost of care. The standard thought process assumes that reducing costs will increase access to care by improving the affordability of health care and perhaps funding more care for the uninsured. An endless number of proposals focus on this issue. In fact, most of today’s initiatives are based upon lowering costs and/or “bending the trend.” Too few proposals address the core of this essay, “How do we capture those savings?”

http://www.soa.org/library/essays/health-essay-2009-axene.pdf