Must-Read: Peter Orszag: Congress Doesn’t Understand Health Costs, or Care

Must-Read: Peter Orszag: Congress Doesn’t Understand Health Costs, or Care: “More effort is needed to constrain [health care] cost growth…

…Yet the House of Representatives is set to vote this week to do the opposite–by repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board…. It’s crucial that the Senate not follow suit…. It’s crucial to move more forcefully away from fee-for-service payments and toward payments that reflect the value of care. Doing so will require a series of nimble adjustments based on evidence showing which incentives and other strategies work well. It would be foolish to bet the ranch on any one untested approach. The Independent Payment Advisory Board was created by the Affordable Care Act… to provide a backstop if health costs grow… [and make] Congress will be more likely to act if members know that failing to do so means the IPAB will step in. Those favoring repeal of the IPAB either oppose a shift away from fee-for-service payment, or believe that Congress is about to become much more adept at complicated payment reform than it has ever been in the past…