Abstract
This report identifies the major areas of information needed in order to support Vermont’s health care policy development, analysis and evaluation – health care spending, health, and value of services provided (the relationship between spending and health). At the highest level, the report identifies five critical questions:
• How healthy are Vermonters?
• How much is spent on health care?
• Where does that money come from?
• What is driving health care spending increases?
• Where are the most significant opportunities to improve the value of health care (to increase health, decrease spending growth, or eliminate inefficiencies)?
While answering each of these questions is important to the Board’s work, ultimately the critical questions will be how much value the health care system provides -- have we improved the health of Vermonters while reducing the rate of spending growth to a level that we can afford and sustain?