Drew Altman Health Quotations

The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do. They're not talking about numbers or outcomes but about their own human experience, which is a combination of cost, paperwork and what I'll call the hassle factor, the impersonal nature of the care.

There are lots of things on the table, but there's nothing that will have a significant impact on the rate of increase of health care costs.

More than nine years into our longest economic expansion on record, more employers are now using health insurance coverage to attract and keep workers, and are absorbing rising costs rather than passing them on to their employees. But this may change if the economy cools down, and the bigger challenge that still remains is how to help the 44 million Americans who are uninsured despite the robust economy.

We may be looking at the start of a fundamental shift in what we mean by health insurance, from a system where we share risks to one where it's up to individuals to make their own deals and bear their own risks.

It is low-wage workers who are being hurt the most by the steady drip, drip, drip of coverage draining out of the employer-based health insurance system.

There have been temporary successes, but always health care costs have bounced back with a vengeance.

The good news is the rate of increase in health care costs is down, ... The bad news is that's the only good news.

a slow but perceptible deterioration of our employer-based (health insurance) system.

This is a slow but perceptible fraying of our employment-based system, ... what I call the drip, drip, drip (of health coverage).

Don't be fooled by the moderation we've seen this year. History has told us that when it comes to controlling health care costs, we've achieved some temporary successes, but the rate of increase always bounces back.

The cost of health care is going up much faster than people's wages. Families are paying about (on average) $1,000 more now just for health care premiums than they were five years ago.

If health insurance was working properly, the sicker you are, the more protection you would have. It seems to be working backwards, the sicker you are, the more trouble you have paying bills.