Health care cost and access problems intensify: initial findings from HSC's recent site visits.

Continued high-cost trends are threatening the affordability of health insurance and many consumers' access to care. Early findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2002-03 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities show the retreat from tightly managed care continues to shape local health care markets. Employers are aggressively shifting higher health costs to workers, and absent tight managed care controls to limit the use of care and slow payment rate increases, hospitals and physicians in many markets are competing fiercely for profitable specialty services. These developments have sparked growing skepticism about the potential for market-led solutions to the cost, quality and access problems facing the health care system today.