Bipartisan report details health care cost drivers

The Bipartisan Policy Center issued a report yesterday detailing the reasons behind the nation's spiralling health care costs.

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Bipartisan Report Focuses On Issues Driving Up Health Care Costs
Among the reasons behind the nation's seemingly inexorable rise in medical spending are the practice of rewarding doctors and hospitals for volume rather than efficiency of care and the tax break given to consumers for their job-based health insurance, according to a report out Thursday from the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington (Appleby, 9/20). 

Politico Pro: BPC Tackles Health Cost Challenge
[The report] includes the usual suspects of soaring health care costs -; the fee-for-service reimbursement system and tax treatment of health insurance, lack of transparency about cost and quality, dual eligibles -; as well as others that are less tangible, like cultural norms that drive Americans to pursue expensive treatments with little evidence of benefit. ... The staff is interviewing stakeholders in the health care industry and doing shuttle diplomacy between their political leadership, whose backing they think is key to both giving the final report some weight in Congress, but also navigating ideological differences ahead of time for areas of agreement (Norman, 9/20).