Podcast: The Latest Trajectory of National Health Spending
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Friday, April 1, 2022 | The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From
Health Affairs

Dear John,

****Today's Health Affairs Today highlights a special message from
Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil.

Health Care Is Now Healthcare

[link removed]

In the spirit of being the bible
of
health policy, we have reached the Talmudic decision to change our style
guide from "health care" to "healthcare." This reverse-Solomonic
decision to not split the baby arises from extensive analysis and
consideration on the part of our ad hoc ADHOHC (Analysis to Decide
Healthcare Or Health Care) committee, which we referred to as our ad hoc
ad hoc committee -- or, when we were in a hurry, the AH-squared
committee (not to be confused with A-squared
, the nickname of the city in
which a certain highly regarded public university is located).

The full committee report can be found here
, but we want to offer our
readers a brief version of our analysis.

Financial

As in all important decisions in healthcare, our primary motivation was
financial. As a journal, we pay authors by the word. Given the frequent
usage of the term in our pages, we have calculated that collapsing
health care into healthcare will save us $3.46. Since we expect other
journals to follow suit, we conservatively calculate the aggregate
savings throughout the health sector to be $89.23. Based on ourrecently
published paper on national health expenditures in 2020
,
this translates into 0.0000000021637 percent of annual US healthcare
spending. We are excited to do our part to bend the health care cost
curve. Indeed, we are sharing our news with the Health Affairs Council
on Spending and Value

for incorporation into their final report.

Following The Leaders

There are times when it is best to lead, and there are times when it is
best to follow the leaders. When it comes to editorial opinions, it is
our opinion that, particularly when it comes to health policy, the Wall
Street Journal is always right. Thus, we are pleased to honor their
leadership
by
following their policy of turning health care into healthcare, just as
they have consistently shown leadership in supporting policies that turn
healthcare into profits.

Better Acronyms

Given that healthcare is an FFWA (field filled with acronyms), there are
many advantages to changing from health care to healthcare. It's not
just that shorter acronyms are better, it's that acronyms that include
the character set "HC" are particularly hard to pronounce and make into
clever titles. Why do you think they changed the name of HCFA? Or
consider the fate of the Affordable Care Act. Instead of calling it ACA,
which is a sound you make when you have a cold, we could be saying AHA!

Of course, we could simply adopt the practice of CMS, which elides one M
(guess which one) for the sake of brevity and ease of pronunciation (try
saying CMMI 10 times fast!), but ours is a more elegant solution.

Change For Change's Sake

We acknowledge that a change such as this will be controversial. My 2021
Health Policy Valentine Tweet
defending the
dignity of health care received 376 likes, a personal record. I guess
I'll just have to eat my words, or, in this case, word.

But times change, and we have to change with them. We will stop fighting
the forces of consolidation in healthcare and go ahead and consolidate
health and care into healthcare.

Not very sincerely,
Alan Weil
Editor-in-Chief
Health Affairs

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The Latest Trajectory of National Health Spending

Listen to Health Affairs' Ellen Bayer and Chris Fleming dissect the
latest national health spending projections published this week from the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Listen Here

Daily Digest

Health Care Is Now Healthcare

Alan Weil

Podcast: The Latest Trajectory Of National Health Spending

Ellen Bayer and Chris Fleming

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Jobs At Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the perfect place to advance your career while
contributing to the leading research and analysis on improving health
policy and health care.

Our team contains a deep bench of experienced professionals in health
policy, dedicated to making health care better. Below are the current
job openings at Health Affairs:

* Development Assistant

* Sales And Partnerships Manager

 

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mailto:[email protected]

About Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal
at the intersection of health,
health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal
is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found
through healthaffairs.org , Health Affairs Today
, and Health Affairs Sunday
Update .  

Project HOPE is a global health and
humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local
health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has
published Health Affairs since 1981.

Copyright © Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

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