The American Heart Association warned that healthcare affordability has reached “a crisis point.”
In an April 30 Presidential Advisory, the organization outlined the current state of affordability, what’s driving the crisis and possible solutions. The advisory was informed by research and interviews conducted with key stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, payer representatives, employer representatives, health system leaders and public health experts.
“Health care affordability is one of the defining challenges of our time,” Dhruv Kazi, MD, American Heart Association volunteer and writing committee chair, and director of the cardiac critical care unit at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said in the release. “This advisory outlines core guiding principles for action to ensure everyone in this country has access to the care they need and the health care system is sustainable for generations to come.”
Here’s what to know:
1. Total healthcare spending is approaching $5 trillion annually across the nation, and costs related to cardiovascular disease are projected to quadruple by 2050.
2. Affordability cannot be addressed by cuts alone, the AHA said. Strategic investments in workforce, infrastructure, primary care, data and public health are necessary to improve long-term costs.
3. The AHA outlined five core principles to guide policymakers and health systems toward a more affordable, sustainable system: Access to high-quality care without financial hardship; minimal or no-cost-sharing for high-value, cost-effective care, including preventive services; shared accountability across the healthcare ecosystem for advancing a more efficient, transparent and cost-conscious system; strategic investments in the healthcare workforce, infrastructure and data; and strengthening the public health infrastructure and address health inequities.
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