FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leading Health Care Expert Urges Reform that Promotes Transparency, Payment Reform and Patient-Centered Care

WASHINGTON, DC — June 16, 2008 — Warning that our nation’s health care system is “unraveling,” National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra L. Ness today urged members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to craft a health care reform bill that recognizes that, when it comes to health care, cost, quality and coverage are inextricably linked.  Ness testified at the Committee’s “Prepare for Launch: Health Care Reform Summit 2008” hosted by Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley.  She noted that the perverse incentives built into our nation’s payment system have grim results, with “millions of patients not getting the care they need or, worse, getting care that actually makes them sicker.”

“Our payment system is driving these problems, but it can also drive the solutions,” Ness said.  “We can redesign the payment system with incentives to improve quality and foster better use of our health care dollars.  We don’t need to pay more to get better care, we need to pay smarter.  By paying smarter, we can change the way care is delivered, improve quality, and generate resources to cover more people.”

At the all-day Health Reform Summit 2008, bi-partisan leaders and health policy experts discussed a variety of health care topics.  Ness spoke at the session on delivery system reform, along with Dr. Dean Ornish, University of California — San Francisco; Jack Cochran, Executive Director, Permanente Foundation, Kaiser Permanente; and Kenneth E. Thorpe, Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

Forty-seven million Americans are uninsured today, health insurance premiums are increasing at a rate much higher than wage increases, and research shows that Americans have only a 50/50 chance of getting the right health care at the right time.  The National Partnership is working to expand access to high quality, affordable health care through comprehensive reforms in how we deliver and pay for care.  The National Partnership supports realigning the payment system to encourage better quality, more patient-centered care and to ensure more effective use of health care resources.

The National Partnership is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting access to quality health care, fairness in the workplace, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family.

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