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Lower Costs

Making Health Care More Affordable

Industry Accountability to Address the Rising Cost of Care

Californians have long felt they are paying more and getting less when it comes to health care. Health Access supports reforms to slow the rate of growth in overall health care costs, while improving quality, outcomes, and equity. Through transparency and better oversight of health care spending at every level—health plans, hospitals, medical groups, drug companies, etc.– we can get better value for our money, for individual consumers and for the system as a whole.

Transparency

Health Access supports efforts to make such data more publicly available so that purchasers of health care and consumers may be better equipped to choose among plans, providers, and procedures.

Oversight

Bigger is not always better in health care. When companies merge, it should be in the best interest of consumers. Cost growth should be kept in check and the government should use what tools it has to ensure that the health care industry is serving patients and payers first.

Cost Drivers

The cost of care is not driven by quality, equity, or better outcomes, but by market power. Health care companies cost increases should come for good reason, or not at all.

In California, health insurance premiums for employer coverage have quadrupled since 2000, from $163 per month to $661 per month, far exceeding the rate of inflation

CA Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA)

As Californians face an affordability crisis on many fronts, the cost of health care has been rising above inflation for years, taking larger and larger chunks out of workers’ wages and family finances.

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Prescription Drugs

The price of prescription drugs has become one of the primary cost drivers in our health care system, accounting for almost 20% of premiums for those under age 65, and even more if you count drugs administered in a doctor’s office.

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Merger Watch

Consolidation in the health industry often means fewer choices and competition, with no benefit for patients or the public. Health companies, whether plans or providers, should not be allowed to get bigger unless they get better.

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Maintaining Charity Care

Nonprofit hospitals seeking to sell or change ownership must get approval from the Attorney General (AG), who evaluates whether the transaction will have a significant effect on the availability or accessibility of health care services to the affected community.

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