The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Board of Directors has warned that rising health care costs are hindering manufacturer's ability to compete by impairing their ability to hire and establish new jobs.
A resolution adopted by the NAM Board at its spring meeting in Scottsdale, AZ warned that the suppliers of health care services have been “notably absent” from providing continuous improvements to the health care system.
“As health spending continues to increase and our workforce ages, the challenge to provide quality and affordable health coverage will not diminish,” said Neil Trautwein, NAM assistant vice president of human resources policy. “Reducing health care costs goes beyond bottom-line politics, it’s imperative to business survival and job growth.”
In order to achieve affordable and quality health care coverage the NAM’s health care resolution calls for public, private and individual initiatives. It urges manufacturers to demand the following from the health care system:
• Greater transparency in health care
• Early implementation of health information technology (Health IT)
• Prevention and better management of chronic diseases
• Better management of high-dollar health care claims, and
• Greater focus on consumerism.
Reflecting the importance of manufacturer's cost, quality and productivity concerns in health care, the board also voted to create a new task force dedicated to the key NAM health care reform priorities and policies. Among those key priorities, the resolution calls for more “consumer-oriented” benefit designs that increase quality awareness and reduce health care costs.“Consumers have been underutilized in the health care system,” continued Trautwein. “The solution to the health care crisis is not a government health care system – which can only lead to poorer service, fewer choices and higher taxes – but rather a system that encourages more active participation of the people most affected – ourselves.”
Full text of the NAM resolution is available online at www.nam.org/healthcareresolution.