Addressing Healthcare Reform

Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare systems is essential for the long-term vitality of the global economy. While many healthcare systems have yielded impressive results and innovation, opportunities remain to make healthcare more accessible and equitable, less costly and reactive and more patient centric.

GE understands the need for local solutions to local healthcare challenges, and is an active partner of many associations, foundations and research institutes that work on the key healthcare issues facing many countries. Governments are bringing basic health insurance coverage to hundreds of millions of rural citizens each year, and strengthening primary care delivery systems across the continent. GE is working with these governments to offer low-cost diagnostics and other tools to populations with limited doctors and insufficient healthcare systems.

Appropriate public policies can provide faster access to world-class technologies for patients who need them. Therefore, GE Healthcare is committed as an active partner to provide constructive input to policy makers. Specific elements of GE’s healthcare policy agenda include:

• Support for universal and affordable coverage. All individuals should be encouraged to purchase health insurance coverage that works for them. To do so, consumers must be able to choose among affordable benefit plans that meet their personal healthcare needs.
• Support for reducing healthcare costs for societies with high percentages of elderly citizens.
• Support for playing a leadership role in advocating for more innovative reimbursement, increased specialization through targeted care–area approaches to cancer, heart disease, stroke and other disease
• Support for public policy addressing the development and delivery of early detection and wellness programs in both public and private sectors, and permitting the use of meaningful incentives that encourage healthy lifestyle choices and behaviors. Prevention and early detection are critical elements in ensuring quality healthcare and controlling costs.
• Support for liability policies that fairly address the weakness in the medical liability system.
• Support for incentivizing the delivery of effective and coordinated care, utilizing health information technology to reduce healthcare costs through a patient-centered, evidence-based integrated delivery system.
• Support for the creation of new medical infrastructure and teaching hospitals in public-private partnerships as creative solutions to offer low-cost healthcare solutions to developing countries.
• Support for governments to make transparent coverage or reimbursement decisions and to include opportunity for stakeholder input.