Expert says Medicaid, Medicare reform is critical and can save $2.1 trillion
Paragon Health Institutes Brian Blase discusses strategies for reforming major federal health care programs.
Spending on federal health care programs has surged in recent years amid the aging of America's populations, and a health care policy expert is calling for reforms to programs including Medicare and Medicaid as well as ObamaCare.
Paragon Health Institute, a think tank specializing in health care market-based policy proposals and research, has outlined a set of strategies and policies for reforming federal health programs as they take up an increasingly large share of the federal budget. Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) programs are projected to rise from about a quarter of federal non-interest spending to roughly 40%, creating significant budgetary pressure.
Paragon President Brian Blase, Ph.D., told FOX Business in an interview that health policy «is the most important domestic policy area» given the percentage of families' household budgets and the federal budget that go to health care. Paragon published a report with 12 reforms that would net an estimated $2.1 trillion in savings over a decade.
«There's many strengths in the American health care system. If you get certain conditions or diseases, you want to get your care in the U.S. – cancer care, for instance. But there are so many inefficiencies… so much of our attention on health care policy is on stuff that doesn't matter much for health,» Blase said.
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Curbing soaring federal spending on health care programs is the focus of Paragon's research. (iStock / iStock)
«Generally, the left's agenda has been to get more people enrolled in coverage,
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