State Health Care Cost Commissions: Their Priorities and How States’ Political Leanings, Commercial Hospital Prices, and Medicaid Spending Predict Their Establishment

Because health care reform is difficult to enact at the federal level, many states are enacting their own reforms, tailored to their needs and political feasibility with many establishing HCCCs to limit health care spending increases. Future research should study the impact of these commissions on health care spending that increases short-term spending yet moderates long-term spending, including the feasibility and impact of increased spending on primary care services as well as the impact of spending on new health care technologies.