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Sen. Whitehouse urges Obama to set delivery-reform target
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Monday pushed the Obama administration to set an explicit target for healthcare cost savings from delivery reform.
On the Senate floor, Whitehouse said that "vague intentions to bend the healthcare cost curve" often voiced in Washington are not enough to ensure better patient outcomes for a better price.
"Instead of being a disgraceful outlier from all the rest of the world on quality and cost, let's make America a healthcare system that is in the envy of the world," Whitehouse said. "That should be our goal, and that could be our destiny."
Whitehouse oriented his remarks within the ongoing debate over how to reduce the deficit. Republicans have proposed benefit cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, arguing that the programs are unsustainable in the long-term.
He added that the Obama administration must seek action beyond the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that modify healthcare delivery.
The United States needs "a number and a date" in order to achieve real savings, in part because it would provide a way to "evaluate the progress of the Affordable Care Act," he said.
