Cost Containment: The Key to Accessible,

Affordable, High-Quality Health Care

The medically vulnerable—for example, people with disabilities and the chronically ill—undoubtedly face
unique challenges in accessing affordable, high-quality care. They often pay more for health care, lack a
usual source of care, and face other access barriers like travel distance and communication difficulties.1 The
National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) emphasizes that cost containment is not about reducing benefits,
limiting access, or shifting costs. Rather, NCHC’s goals for cost containment aim for a sustainable system that
will bring improvements in access, quality, and value to a level where even the neediest patients can obtain
the appropriate level of care at an affordable price.

Why should you support cost containment?

• Careless spending will put publicly and privately funded services, including Medicare and
Medicaid, at risk.2
• Cost containment requires that we work to improve access and quality of care.
• Higher spending does not guarantee higher quality care.3

How will cost containment make health care more affordable?

• We can lower insurance premiums and offer affordable care to everyone by:
1. Providing coverage for all Americans.
o Will cover medically necessary, comprehensive care, and pre-existing conditions.4
o Will increase work force productivity, and will limit the costs you have to pay for
the currently uninsured.5
2. Encouraging cost-sensitive decision making and healthy competition by making
information widely available.6
3. Making generic, more affordable, medicines available in a timely manner.7

How will cost containment improve access and quality?

1. Support information sharing among providers, patients, and purchasers. This will
improve consistency in using best practices, and will link payments to quality
outcomes.8

1
Long, Sharon K., Teresa A. Coughlin, and Stephanie J. Kendall. "Access to Care Among Disabled Adults on Medicaid." Health Care
Financing Review 23.4 (2002): 159-73. Available at: https://www.cms.gov/HealthCareFinancingReview/downloads/02Summerpg159.pdf.
2
Batavia, Andrew I. “Health Care Reform and People with Disabilities.” Health Affairs, 12, no.1 (1993):40-57. Available at:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/12/1/40.full.pdf
3
Fisher, Elliot et al. “Health Care Spending, Quality, and Outcomes: More Isn’t Always Better.” The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and
Clinical Practice. February 27, 2009. Available at: http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/downloads/reports/Spending_Brief_022709.pdf
4
National Coalition on Health Care. Building a Better Health Care System: Specifications for Reform. Washington, D.C., 2009. Available at:
http://nchc.org/sites/default/files/resources/specs_for_reform.pdf
5
Id. at 9
6
Id. at 21
7
Id. at 21–22
8
Id. at 23
National Coalition on Health Care June 1, 2011
Prepared by Yue Pui Chin
 2. Develop medical homes and accountable care organizations, which emphasize
patient-centered and coordinated care, in order to meet the unique needs of individual
patients and improve overall quality.

National Coalition on Health Care June 1, 2011

Prepared by Yue Pui Chin