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Understanding Affordability and Value in Health Care

While affordability is highly subjective and means different things to different consumers, patients, employers, government, providers and payers, “affordable health care” is often viewed generally as an issue of the cost of care. Yet, discussing affordability solely in terms of cost provides an incomplete picture that fails to consider the level of access and quality of care received for each dollar spent.

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Articles of Interest

Affordable Care: Harnessing the Power of Nurses

The purpose of this article is to discuss the unique roles offering empowerment to nurses to drive and respond to financial concerns in healthcare through the lens of the three aims of the ACA: reducing cost, improving quality and increasing access.

High quality, affordable health care is the right of every American

Without access to affordable coverage, we will see more Americans forego or delay necessary medical care, putting millions of lives at risk and driving up costs to the system.

Universal healthcare: the affordable dream

Universal healthcare is often presented as an idealistic goal that remains out of reach for all but the richest nations. That’s not the case, writes Amartya Sen. Look at what has been achieved in Rwanda, Thailand and Bangladesh.

What is Affordable Healthcare?

Although the “affordability” of health care is a common concern, the term is rarely defined. Fundamentally, affordability is a function of income, spending, and judgments about the value of goods and services for their price. This brief considers affordability as an economic concept, as a kitchen-table budget issue for individuals and families, and as a threshold in current policy. It reviews a range of measures that capture the cost burden for individuals and famili

Resources

11 Years On, the Affordable Care Act Defies Opponents and Keeps Expanding

Eleven years after President Barack Obama signed his signature domestic achievement, and after several near-death experiences, the health law is again expanding.