USCIB comments on the reorganization of BIAC health care activities
BIAC Employment, Labor and Social Affairs Committee
October 17, 2000
The USCIB Health Care Working Group welcomes the efforts within the OECD to organize its health care policy work in a horizontal manner, something the BIAC group has been requesting for sometime. This new strategy for ELSAC work on health policy demonstrates the increased relevance of health care issues across a wide spectrum of OECD Committees and activities.
The U.S. Council strongly supports the work of BIAC and OECD on health care and stresses the importance of maintaining a strong, horizontal focus on these issues in both BIAC and the OECD. The USCIB Health Care Working Group is a multi-sectoral group including representatives from pharmaceutical companies, health care insurance companies as well as representatives from companies providing health care to their employees. Based on previous participation in health care discussions, the U.S. Council encourages the members of BIAC to continue to support the BIAC health care activities and urge them to have multi-sectoral participation in these activities.
USCIB President Tom Niles is writing a letter to the U.S. Mission to the OECD supporting the project and conference proposed in the OECD paper “New Horizontal Project on Health Care.” In addition, the U.S. Council encourages the members of BIAC to urge their governments to support the project.
Lastly, should the OECD seek financial support from the BIAC for the proposed project, the U.S. Council believes any effort by BIAC to provide such financial support should be performed in a transparent and coordinated manner.
Priority Topics for the BIAC Task Force on Health Care Policy
The USCIB Health Care Working Group believes there are three main areas in which the BIAC Task Force on Health Care Policy should specifically focus its priorities to best contribute to the work of the OECD on health care issues. Having read the OECD paper “New Horizontal Project on Health Care,” the Group believes that these three areas of focus can be addressed within the context of the proposed new project. These three areas are:
1. Dynamic pressures on health care as defined by the questions in point ii of Part 1 of the “Strategy for ELSAC work on health policy over the period 2000-2004.” The Task Force should also consider the impact of rising consumer information and power, as this stretches beyond the confines of national frontiers.
2. Methods of financing health care, including alternative funding mechanisms based on choice and competition.
3. Reforming health care systems, taking into account new health technologies and their impact on the delivery, financing and provision of care. Regulatory reform, is an area in which the OECD could usefully lend support to the development and maintenance of independent, efficient, and science-based licensing systems.
All three of these areas are closely related to the new research and policies on aging populations and the rapid pace of technological change. The Task Force should examine these two specific developments as they relate to the above three areas.
