PBGH Testimony & Public Comment Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project Comparative Effectiveness Research PBGH Fact Sheets	As a nation, we spend far more on health care per capita than any other country in the world -- $7,421 for every man, woman, and child in 2007 or 16.2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Yet, the United States ranks only 37th out of 191 countries in providing quality care, and we have the highest proportion of the population without health care coverage of all industrialized nations.

We are spending more and more each year on health care, and yet millions remain uninsured and none of us receive consistently high quality, cost effective care:

• Quality of care varies dramatically between doctors and hospitals, but those differences are invisible to patients;
• Payments reward quantity over quality and fixing problems over prevention;
• Lack of standardized performance measures makes it impossible to know which providers are doing a good job, and those who are not; and
• Consumers lack information to make the choices that are right for them.
  

PBGH has worked hard for many years to bring this message to policymakers in California and in Washington, D.C.  This year, as political leaders in Congress and state houses across America are discussing real solutions for change, PBGH has been at the forefront of making the case for building health care value.

PBGH believes that any health care reform, whether it is an incremental approach or a total overhaul of our current system, must build health care value.  We must provide quality care at an affordable price.  Without ensuring quality, access to care may be meaningless, or even dangerous.  And without addressing runaway costs and inefficiencies, care becomes even more inaccessible.  By building health care value into state and national reform measures, we can ensure that Americans get what they deserve – the right care at the right time at a fair price.