FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, DC – March 2, 2012 - “The amount our country spends on health care continues to rise and is projected to reach 20 percent of GDP by 2020. This rising spending is not a new issue, but it is reaching a new level of urgency,” stated Nancy Chockley, President and CEO of NIHCM Foundation, in her opening remarks for the foundation's latest webinar.

This webinar, Controlling Health Care Spending: The Imperative to Act and Diverse Views of the Road Forward, part of the foundation’s larger research focus on health care costs, invited four leading experts to address the economic realities of high and rising health spending and to exchange ideas on how we can move toward a more sustainable system.

Julie Schoenman from NIHCM Foundation began with an extensive graphical presentation that used the latest available data to describe current spending trends and their fiscal consequences. Michael Chernew from Harvard University then spoke about the consequences of rising spending, highlighting his research on the long-run impact of health spending growth that outpaces economic growth and laying out the implications of our choices about how to pay for growing spending. Jonathan Gruber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and James Capretta from the Ethics and Public Policy Center concluded the event with a point-counterpoint discussion of the road forward that included dialogue on the need to allow new cost-reduction efforts the time to play out and on proposals to make market-oriented reforms to Medicare.

Visit the webinar page for more from this event, including:
    •    an audio-visual archive of the event (NEW)
    •    printable presentation slides
    •    additional sets of slides supplementing Dr. Schoenman’s presentation (NEW)
    •    a bibliography of relevant background reading
    •    NIHCM Foundation’s 2011 study on health care costs

About NIHCM

NIHCM Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that conducts research on health care issues. The Foundation disseminates research findings and analyses that promote and enhance access to health care and the efficiency and effectiveness of health care services and delivery.

Contact:
Nancy Chockley
President and CEO
NIHCM Foundation
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(202) 296-4426

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