What States Can Learn From One Another on Health Care

You should also examine the effect of Oregon's coordinated care organizations and effects on cost and quality of care. Especially compared to california, where even the big national insurers are totally failing on quality. See a recent Kaiser Health Foundation report on Calif and Medicaid care quality.

Although largely overlooked by media, there are Constitution-Dependent, Inherited Real Risk, bedside diagnosed from birth, i.e., using a common stethoscope, and removing them with inexpensive Reconstructin Mitochondrial Quantum Therapy. I have a dream: tomorrow's neonatology will ensure on every newborn the presence of possible constitutions and their Inherited Real Risks aiming to eliminate them in the first year of life with non-expensive medical therapy, according to the Manuel's Stor. References on request only ofNYTimes.

Some of this is insurance not care. Some of the differences in costs are due to the same things that make everything more or less expensive in some areas. Some are cultural types of differences. We can and should learn, but not everything is the same so just allow states to be different.

From what I gathered, Massachusetts had great health care during the time Romney was the governor. If every state had adopted Romney care that would have been okay. but instead it morphed into the craziest system in the world, Obamacare as described by Bill Clinton. Also Romney ran away from Romney care instead of defending it as a model for health care. In the end let states decide what is best for the health of their own states but ensuring universal health care for every single individual.

This is exactly the thinking that should have carried Congress in 21009. Health care has always been a state-by-state concern and never EVER should have been a federal issue. The disaster of the Veterans Admin. under Democrats should have convinced us about that.

What states should learn is on some critical issues facing US we need to realize the calamity of "sovereign" state having its own system for solving problems that are of national import. I never understood the reason for 50 separate governments needing a DMV. Cannot someone in Maine drive to Florida or California and crisscross this country without needing 50 different licenses? We have an Interstate system that would a lot harder to manage if every state had its own way of marking those roads. We would think that is pretty dumb, and it would be. So why is this nonsense being employed with the nation's health care? If in my travels from New York to California by motor car would I be afraid that were I to get sick in, say Oklahoma, the state that would Sooner have you die in car crash if you did not have the OK insurance plan because they believe "states rights" takes precedent over being an American, I would have to fend for myself and somehow keep heading West until I was in a state that acknowledged Obamacare? Of course that's a ridiculous scenario, yet that is how our elected representatives view it. The answer to our national problem is universal cradle to grave coverage valid anywhere in the US. That is how those socialists nations do it. Sometimes Americans need to know they do not have all the answers. Good God, they picked Trump. DD Manhattan

The California reference pricing model has a lot of promise for the private insurance sector. It is similar to Medicare and Medicaid in that prices for procedures and services are pre-determined based on what they actually cost. For example, hip replacement through Medicaid costs $10,000 to $12,000, even lower than the $30,000 CALPERS pays. With expanded Medicare and more reference pricing, we might not have as many doctors in the 1%.

How do you find out how much a procedure is at different locations (example hip replacement in CA)? I needed outpatient procedure and was quoted $X at my local clinic. I called seven different locations and NONE could/would give me an estimate of what it would cost without me spending several hundred dollars being rediagnosed at their location. Was it included in requirement that price range be readily available to public without additional hoops to jump through? I was not looking for exact figure just an average cost.

Dr. Khullar states, “Although it’s important to learn from states at the top, it’s perhaps more instructive to see what states with large improvements are doing, or have done, to get better.” This is precisely what The SCAN Foundation is doing through our first-ever Pacesetter Prize (http://www.thescanfoundation.org/pacesetter-prize), based off the Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) State Scorecard (http://www.longtermscorecard.org/). What are states that show the most improvement in LTSS dimensions doing, and how can they motivate the others? With the 65-and-older population projected to almost double within the next 25 years, states need to adopt or adapt policies to manage this growth. The four winning states demonstrate innovative policies, coordinated services, and a commitment to older adults, individuals with disabilities, and their family caregivers. Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, and Vermont are the Prize winners for 2017 and are sharing their LTSS best practices with their state policymaker counterparts at the National Conference of State Legislatures Summit in mid-December. By highlighting improvement, the Pacesetter Prize sheds light on how all states can do better; the Prize serves as a catalyst for other states to adopt best practices and improve their systems so vulnerable populations in all states get the best support and services possible.

Glad to see most of the comments here are spot on! Every American in EVERY state should get quality health care to the highest ( Federal ) standards. We already know that some states would still have slavery if we left it up to them for heavens sake, Medicare For All bring it ON ...( with drug prices strictly negotiated )

This article touts Georgia but its infant mortality rate of 7.8 deaths per in 2015 was still among the worst in the U.S.; Infant mortality rates were generally the highest (7.3-9.3) in the Deep South States. The lowest state rate was about 4.3 in New England States. The lack of expanded Medicaid in the South and the near total lack of State Government spending on healthcare and children is the major reason for higher infant deaths, IMO. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/infant_mortality_rates/infant_...

LARC is an excellent acronym.

"Health care is perhaps the area most consistently recognized as ripe for state-based policy innovation, in keeping with the ideal of states as laboratories of democracy." Yes, and that's why some people opposed everything from Civil Rights legislation to the family leave act - because, these types of things are best done at the "state" level. Republicans have made pretty clear that the only thing they want to experiment with is how best to get taxpayers off the hook for subsidizing healthcare for millions of their less affluent brethren. Their rationale for cutting taxes at the federal level is the same argument they make for cutting taxes at the state (and local) levels as well. Republicans and Democrats may share some common language regarding healthcare such as "reform" and "affordable", but they mean very different things by it. It goes without saying that the guinea pigs of any "experiments" conducted by the states will largely be people who don't have cushy private insurance. Because, in fact, Republicans believe that for the people who can afford it, (i.e. their donors and vocal supporters) Americans have the best healthcare in the world.

"Seema Verma, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has promised to give states an 'unprecedented level of flexibility' to devise their Medicaid programs" Um. Okay. But isn't flexibility part of the problem? True, there are regional differences between states and one-size-fits-all solutions are a bad idea; but pushing infinite flexibility is how our system became such a nightmare in the first place. We need a set of national standards to protect people in states where "flexibility" is used to avoid having to care for the poor, sick and injured.

Why in the world should American "states" learn from other American states, none of which do healthcare well? The United" States should learn from other countries how to do it right. Why isn't The Upshot advocating for single-payer as Canada has, a system that covers every resident with first-rate healthcare at barely half the cost of America's system? Is that so hard?

OK gang, let's go over it again, the answer is to get a national, universal, affordable, quality health care program like the rest of the civilized world and not so civilized world. Lightly restricted Free Enterprise is good for many things but not healthcare. It has turned our medical system into one closer to a third world country then a leading modern country.