Do we want to throw money at reforms without results?

Volterra Consulting's new sister firm, Volterra Health, launched its first report today 'The Medical Arms Race, A New Global Perspective'. It sets out our main critique of common health policy reforms over the last thirty years and warns of the dual costs of running the 'Old Model' in parallel with attempts at the 'New'.

Volterra Health take a global view and show that while behavioural demand drivers of increasing health costs are important - and will become more so - there are basic structural problems preventing cost containment. Most developed countries suffer from an imperative to use the latest technologies and therapies - the so called 'medical arms race'. But some developing countries have shown that they can get better or comparable results for much, much less (see also McKinsey, 2010).

Professor Nick Bosanquet, Bridget Rosewell and Charlotte Alldritt argue that unless we halt this medical arms race and address underlying supply side issues, we'll continue to throw money at 'reforms' which only fail payors and patients. As Charlotte also argues in the Guardian today, healthcare is going to be the issue for 2011. Watch this space!