Becker's Healthcare December 30, 2024
Former President Jimmy Carter’s healthcare legacy — though marked by political defeats — laid the groundwork for modern policy approaches to address rising costs, a policy expert wrote in a Dec. 29 op-ed published in Time.
Mr. Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, entered office in 1977 during a period of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Total national health expenditures had steeply risen from $74 billion in 1970 to $152 billion in 1977, largely driven by the 1965 launch of Medicare and its generous reimbursement policies, according to Guian McKee, PhD, White Burkett Miller Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs.
Hospital cost containment was a cornerstone of Mr. Carter’s healthcare agenda. In...