WASHINGTON, DC (February 5, 2019): The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) – a coalition of employers, insurers, life science companies, PBMs, brokers, agents, patient groups, and physician organizations – responded this evening to President Trump’s call for bipartisan action on healthcare costs in his State of the Union address.
CAHC President Joel White released the following statement:
“CAHC supports President Trump’s call for bipartisan action to make health care more affordable. Over the past 20 years, earnings have declined as health costs have eaten into take-home pay, according to our research. Rising medical inflation is eroding hardworking Americans’ wages, exacerbating income inequality and offering too little value in return.”
“We call on all Members of Congress to put aside partisan differences and work with each other to make affordability a reality. Lawmakers could start with measures like the PAVE Act, commonsense, cost-saving draft legislation released last month by Senators Cassidy (R-LA) and Warner (D-VA) to remove government-imposed barriers to value-based purchasing agreements in federal health programs.”
“CAHC offered more than a half-dozen additional market-driven, consensus-based solutions to bend the health cost curve in a whitepaper released just last month – and we’re not done yet. Our members are working hand-in-hand with policymakers on real-world solutions to lower costs and improve affordability, both for prescription drugs and the services side of the ledger – which remains the true driver of our unsustainable health cost curve.”