Ohio Gov.John Kasich and Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove appeared at the City Club Friday, to talk about health-care reform. Both were focused on the importance of lowering health costs.
Kasich said the state was able to lower yearly growth in Medicaid costs from 9 percent to 3 percent. He said the state could continue cutting costs if it could eliminate coverage of some of the more expensive prescription drugs.
“And the minute we can drop it is the minute we got negotiating power. And they’re going to bring their price down," Kasich said.
Cosgrove added that the U.S. subsidizes medical research and development for the rest of the world. For example, he said the price of a heart valve here is $3,000; in Egypt it's $300.
“Most countries in the world have a single payer, and single payers can negotiate. And we don’t have that in the United States and as a result they’ve taken advantage of that," Cosgrove said.
A single payer is often also referred to as Medicare-for-all.
Kasich later was asked directly whether he thinks single payer would be a good solution to high costs. He said no, that it would stifle innovation.
