Healthcare Policy
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Healthcare is a major domestic policy issue. National healthcare expenditures now exceed $1.9 trillion, consuming 16% of gross domestic product after a decade of relative stability. This growth in expenditures is likely to accelerate as the population ages, and as scientific progress introduces more effective, but more expensive, procedures. The Science and Technology Policy effort in healthcare policy is done in collaboration with the Baker Institute Health Economics program and tries to links biomedical research policy with healthcare. Led by Dr. Vivian Ho, James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice University, the Health Economics Program’s mission is to study the ways in which economic incentives and government policies influence the quality and costs of healthcare. |
Code Red - The Critical Condition of Health in Texas
The Task Force - Access to Healthcare in Texas: Challenges of the Uninsured and Underinsured
Texas faces an impending crisis regarding the health of its population,
which will profoundly influence the state's competitive position nationally
and globally. The health of Texas, economically, educationally, culturally
and socially depends on the physical and mental health of its population.
Quality of life for individual Texans and the communities in which they live
depends critically upon health status. In the state, 25.1 percent of the
population is without health insurance, the highest in the nation and
growing. The increasing discrepancy between growing health needs and access
to affordable health insurance coverage creates the conditions for a"perfect storm."
In view of these serious challenges, ten academic health institutions
created the Task Force for Access to Health Care in Texas to address these
issues. Task Force members also included small and large business employees,
health care providers, insurers and consumers. All represented their own
personal perspective and did not represent groups or organizations with which they are associated. Financial support for the project came solely
from the academic health institutions. In April 2006, they release the
report Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health in Texas.
The Future of U.S. Health Care : A Discussion with Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform, The Brookings Institution
Recent statistics indicate that the number of individuals without health insurance has risen to 47 million in the United States. Those with health coverage are facing rapidly rising premiums, as new medical technologies have driven health expenditures in the U.S. to exceed 2 trillion dollars per year. Dr. Mark McClellan, the newly named director of the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institution joins us to discuss these issues, as well as other challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system. McClellan has a distinguished record in public service and in academia. He is the former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2004-2006) and the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (2002-2004).
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