Experts from the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute have released a joint list of recommendations to reduce health care costs in response to a request by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Henry Aaron, former CRFB staff member Loren Adler, Joseph Antos, James Capretta, Matthew Fiedler, Paul Ginsburg, Benedic Ippolito, and CRFB board member Alice Rivlin authored the list, which includes policies that are aimed at "improving incentives in private insurance, removing state regulatory barriers to provider market competition, improving incentives in the Medicare program, and promoting competition in the pharmaceutical market."

The recommendations include policies that would:

Limit the exclusion for employer-provided insurance

Increase resources for antitrust enforcement

Allow states to create claims databases

Encourage repeal of state laws prohibiting insurance networks

Encourage repeal of state laws regulating hospital expansions

Protect patients from surprise physician billing

Expand site-neutral outpatient payments

Re-balance Medicare physician fees toward patient visits

Reform Medicare cost-sharing and Medigap policies

Increase flexibility for Part D "protected classes"

Reduce Part D reinsurance payments to insurers

Reform Part B drug payments

Encourage the use of generic drugs in Part D

Mandate bundled payments where they've been tested

Provide a comprehensive Medicare plan comparison tool

Enact the CREATES Act to boost generic drugs

Restrict the orphan drug designation

Tie the 340B program to patients rather than facilities

These policies have the potential to both reduce health care spending and garner bipartisan support. There are also many other options to reduce health spending at the federal level or system-wide that the Senate HELP Committee and other lawmakers could adopt.