Summary
There's good and bad news in the January 6, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, "Health-Care Outlays Climb at Slowest Rate in Years". The good: the slowing growth rate; the bad: it masks some pernicious trends and issues. But, to paraphrase an old story, in a room full of horse excrement, there have to be some ponies in there; and there are.
Analysis
A slowing growth rate leaves more money for governments, companies and individuals to spend elsewhere, perhaps on things that are more productive to our economy, or, "perish the thought", to put into savings and investments. As companies' health care costs go down (or don't go up as much), that makes them more competitive in a global market, especially since companies in other countries are not similarly saddled (because other countries spend less on health care overall, and health care is usually financed via government versus by companies).
The bad news, though is that: 1. Even with slowing growth, our health care spending is still too high, much higher than that for other countries; and our health care results and status don't match other countries' numbers. 2. Volume declines in pharmaceuticals, hospital and doctor use, etc., could lead to higher costs in the future, or even worse health outcomes and productivity declines. 3. As is true with temporarily low energy costs, significant reductions in health care cost growth could lull us into ignoring the enormity and urgency of the problems associated with U.S. health care.
Okay, so where are the ponies likely to be found? In companies/consulting firms that:
*Produce cost-saving results for doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers and are able to prove that they do so, including going at risk for achieving results. This will require even more thought and creativity.
*Help doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers collect what they are legitimately owed more completely and quickly.
*Offer companies, payers, or government programs that align incentives among doctors, hospitals and other providers to provide higher quality, lower cost care, and care that properly eliminates provider incentives to do more "things" to patients whether or not those "things" will favorably impact outcomes or cost of care.
*Provide realistic incentives and programs for individuals to take better care of themselves.
*Can significantly influence public policy on the design and financing of our health care system to fix the many issues making it so dysfunctional.
There are, indeed, clever ways of addressing each of the above. The keys are to think them through and execute them well.
