Our recent Quality Institute poll found that New Jersey residents are deeply worried about rising health care costs, which outpace wage growth.

Health care is essential to a healthy life. Yet rising health costs crowd out public investment in other life essentials: safe housing, education, social services, clean water, reliable transportation, and parks. We rely on government support for these services. Thus, it is imperative that state and local policy makers spend every tax dollar on health care wisely.

Employers also have an important role to play as they insure over half of our residents. As health spending increases, salaries suffer as employers respond to the financial pressures of providing health benefits for their employees and their families. When employers sponsor a health benefits plan, they have a legal fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to prudently select and monitor the vendors they use to supply those benefits in the best interests of their employees.

At the Quality Institute, our commitment to accountability and affordability in health care prompted us to interview Kevin D. Walsh, Acting New Jersey State Comptroller, for the Take Five in this newsletter. I urge you to read the interview and hear Walsh explain how fraud and waste increases costs and harms patients.

I also invite you to read last month’s Take Five with health economist Christopher Whaley, Ph.D. Dr. Whaley led the Employer Price Transparency Project, which shares data that employers, including public entities, can use to see the wide disparities in pricing. Transparency is the first step to finding the best prices and to fulfilling the duty to spend health care dollars more responsibly.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the untimely passing of Suzanne Delbanco, an unwavering, national leader in health care quality who championed the important role of purchasers in addressing health care spending. Please read more about Suzanne’s legacy here.

One message that I take from these fierce advocates for transparency and responsible spending on health care is that there are trade-offs when we spend too much of our government, company, or personal budgets on health care. By failing to spend more responsibly on health care, we are forgoing other life essentials necessary to make New Jersey a more welcoming, equitable, and healthy place to live.