Treading Water
The No-Growth Investment in Health Services Research

Funding for health services research is dwindling even as health costs soar. Even where funding is available, primarily through the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there has been an alarming decrease in accepted grant proposals, representing more individually developed research, in favor of government contracts. In the absence of a dramatic increase in funding health services research, both the efficiency and effectiveness with which biomedical and clinical research innovations are translated into medical practice will be threatened.

Wilson H. Taylor Scholar
Joseph Antos
There is a "perfect storm" brewing in the American healthcare system. Healthcare spending has grown faster than our economy for many years and is projected to double in as little as 10 years. In spite of what we spend on healthcare, research tells us that we only receive appropriate care half the time. We are simply not getting what we are paying for. Health services research provides the data and the evidence needed to make better decisions, design healthcare benefits, and develop effective policies to optimize healthcare financing, facilitate access to healthcare services, and improve healthcare outcomes. Despite what we know and what we can learn from health services research, federal funding for this important field continues to erode.

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Joseph Antos is the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at AEI. Emily J. Holubowich is the director of government relations at the Coalition for Health Services Research.

About the Author

 

Joseph
Antos

  • Mr. Antos's research focuses on the economics of health policy—including Medicare and broader health system reform, health care financing, health insurance regulation, and the uninsured—and federal budget policy. He has written and spoken extensively on the Medicare drug benefit and has led a team of experienced independent actuaries and cost estimators in a study to evaluate various proposals to extend health coverage to the uninsured. His work on the country’s budget crisis includes a detailed plan to achieve fiscal stability and economic growth developed in conjunction with AEI colleagues.  


    Joseph Antos is also a commissioner of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and a health adviser to the Congressional Budget Office.  Before joining AEI, Mr. Antos was Assistant Director for Health and Human Resources at the Congressional Budget Office.




    Watch Mr. Antos in an interview with Bill Erwin of the Alliance for Health Reform on "Will Health Reform Reduce the Federal Deficit?"

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    Email: jantos@aei.org
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