High Performance Health System

To those who participate in the U.S. health care system—providers, consumers, purchasers, plans, and policymakers—it's clear that there's an urgent need for transformation.

The Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System seeks to move the U.S. toward a health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for those who are most vulnerable.

Research confirms what many observe firsthand: the system is fragmented and fraught with inefficiency.

While our pluralistic public-private "system" has many strengths, misaligned incentives among key stakeholders make reform a great challenge.

The United States spends well over twice the per-capita average of industrialized countries, but high spending on health care has not translated into better care or better outcomes.

Americans do not live as long as citizens of several other countries, and there are widespread disparities based on insurance status, income, race, and ethnicity.