The debate on US healthcare policy must focus on overall cost containment, not on shifting costs within the silos of public, employer, and private sector payers, experts told a congressional briefing on 28 January.

Fuelling the renewed policy debate are a report earlier this month from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services saying that aggregate healthcare spending rose at a relatively low 3.9% for the last three years for which information was available1 and broad recommendations from the Commonwealth Fund on how an additional $2 trillion might be shaved from increased healthcare spending over the next decade.2

“We are not talking about fighting over …