The Economic Benefit of ACP to the Health Care System

What is the economic benefit of the Affordable Connectivity Program to the health care system? In short, there are many ways that telehealth can reduce costs and improve outcomes. This is not really a debatable point.  As a recent witness testified at a House hearing on telehealth, there is now substantial research demonstrating improved outcomes and access across numerous specialties and a vast array of healthcare services published in recent years. What I hope we could all agree on is that it would be helpful in the context of not just the ACP debate—but also for the future of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration—for the Administration and/or Congress to seek an authoritative study on the issue.  I think it should be framed in terms of what COVID has taught us about the future of healthcare delivery.  That episode accelerated the movement to online healthcare, and it would serve many public policy purposes to have such a study. In doing that study, we should incorporate the wisdom of Wayne Gretzky, who famously said that the key is to skate to where the puck is going.  So here, there is a movement by multiple stakeholders to use telehealth generally to improve outcomes and lower costs. We should not only understand that movement, but we should restructure our government’s healthcare insurance policies (Medicare, Medicaid, and medical services provided by the Veterans’ Administration) to take advantage of the opportunities created by modern communications technology.  After all, as discussed in my testimony, broadband is a general-purpose technology that produces productivity gains throughout different sectors of the economy.  The cost of providing it to those who cannot currently afford it is relatively small compared to the economic gains that such access would provide, in healthcare and other areas. In short, given the amount the United States spends on Medicare and Medicaid, universal, sustainable broadband should be seen as a huge opportunity to improve health outcomes while lowering costs.  We should seize that opportunity.

[Blair Levin is the Policy Advisor to New Street Research and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro​.]