New York’s Next Health Care Revolution: How Employers Can Empower Patients and Consumers

In this Manhattan Institute essay collection, supported by NYHealth, policy and business experts offer diagnoses for New York’s health care system and a set of options for employers and policymakers to enact patient- and consumer-centered reform.

Ongoing health care reform efforts and emerging trends, ranging from the Affordable Care Act to changes in the employer insurance market, are spurring a new focus on quality and patient empowerment. As patients gain access to information on health care cost, quality, and safety, they can become increasingly able to shop for more affordable health care coverage and play active roles in their health care decisions. This presents the potential for competition and transparency to take root in New York State and transform the current opaque, expensive health care environment into one where patients can exercise their power  as a consumer.

The essays focus on the patient’s role as an informed consumer and offer steps for public and private employers to create a more level playing field where insurers and providers compete to deliver high-value health care.