Reforming Health Care

Chicago, IL— Without action from Congress, premiums and deductibles for residents of Illinois with employer provided insurance will nearly double by 2016, according to a new report released today by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.

“Unchecked, health care premiums will double by 2016,” said Staff Attorney Emily Miller , “The health care reforms in President Obama’s economic recovery plan are indispensable first steps to addressing this crisis.”

Illinois PIRG attributes these high costs to wasteful health spending and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries that profit from it.  The report concludes that one out of three dollars spent on health care fuels profits for special interests without delivering better health care for patients.

The report spotlights two important categories of wasteful health spending in Illinois.

·     $11,094,430,000.00 each year was spent on inappropriate, ineffective and uncoordinated care which can actually cause harm to patients.

·     An estimated $ $1,816,884,000.00 in red tape is created by bloated insurance company bureaucracy.

Miller lauds the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and its $24.1 billion investment in the health care infrastructure.  Miller states, “This legislation funding of health information technology, evidence-based prevention, and comparative effectiveness research will enable reforms which we discuss in the report.”

The U.S. PIRG report calls for additional longer-term reforms that crack down on drug company marketing, rein in insurance industry red tape, and reform provider payment to encourage more effective medical care.

“This year, a new President and a new Congress have an opportunity to pass broad health reform that tames the waste, inefficiency, and skewed incentives that drive up our health care costs,” noted Miller. “Illinois families can’t afford to miss this opportunity.”