As this Republican Congress works with the president to tackle the issue of healthcare cost and coverage, it is important that we don’t repeat the mistakes from eight years ago. We must prioritize getting it right over getting it done quickly. If we want to lower the cost of health insurance for American families, we have to lower the cost of healthcare – this requires identifying the sources of the high cost.

Consider: Five percent of Medicaid patients account for 55 percent of all Medicaid costs; a Kaiser study found that 10 percent of patients account for two-thirds of healthcare costs in our nation; recently, Maryland identified 37 million in healthcare dollars were spent on just 500 patients. Some of these patients have chronic complicated diseases, some have short-term needs such as a pregnancy. Ultimately, all need healthcare, but care doesn’t have to cost the patients, the government or employers as much as it does today.