This year, the New America Foundation will convene a California-based task force composed of high-level health care stakeholders. Their goal will be to develop innovative solutions that promote value in health care spending. The specific focus of their work will be on California, but their recommendations will influence the reenergized national health reform effort. These deliberations will be guided by the input of a panel of health policy experts who will identify the most important actions of state regulators, legislators, insurers, and providers to begin reining in health care costs in the California marketplace.

 

Required Reading

Everybody's Got a Stake in
Reforming Health Care
Sacramento Bee
March 29, 2009

On the Cutting Edge: The Next
Social Contract for Health Care
Event
May 8, 2009

Lessons From California's Health
Reform Effort for the National Debate
Policy Paper
March 7, 2008

Balancing Act: Creating a
Sustainable Health Care Benefits Package
Policy Paper
November 1, 2007

What Matters Most:
Californians' Priorities for Healthcare Coverage
Center for Healthcare Decisions
May 2009

Effective strategies for value promotion and cost containment are crucial whether current federal reform efforts stall or are successful; they are necessary whether California itself takes a comprehensive or incremental path to health policy reform. Making progress toward covering the uninsured and providing greater access to care depends— practically and politically—on maximizing value for the patient of every dollar of health care spending. This is particularly clear in light of the sharp constraints on public and private resources in the current fiscal climate.

The first meeting of the expert committee took place on Monday, April 13, 2009 at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento, California. The first Task Force meeting took place on June 2, 2009.

Staff
Leif Wellington Haase
Director, California Program

Micah Weinberg
Senior Research Fellow, California Program