An executive with UnitedHealth Group offered his recipe for comprehensive health care reform, which he called more urgent because of the current economic crisis.

Simon Stevens, an executive vice president with the national health insurer, told the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Health Care Conference in Chicago that health coverage for all Americans – a major initiative being explored by Congress and President Barack Obama – is “attainable.” He added that funding for providing coverage to more people could come from offsetting savings in the growth of U.S. health care spending. About 45.5 million Americans lack health coverage, according to government estimates.

Stevens said keys to reform include strengthening employer coverage that already supports 160 million people, while reforming individual insurance markets, and targeting expanded public funding for low income individuals and families. He added that UnitedHealth Group also believes that coverage expansions and cost containment are two sides of the same coin and must be pursued in tandem, together with modernizing Medicare and making better use technology.

Stevens is chairman of the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization, which is seeking to pair the national health insurer’s leadership without outside resources to devise innovative solutions to the health care challenges facing the United States. Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, which operates in the mid-Atlantic region.

Concerns about the federal budget deficit should not stand in the way of health care modernization, as this would release offsetting federal savings that Congress could deploy on expanding coverage, Stevens said.

“For the $2.6 trillion the nation will spend on health care this year, we should be able to do a lot better,” Stevens told the group. “To expand coverage, we have to tackle costs and quality. The good news is we do actually know how to do this.”

Stevens said his company “will be sharing practical ideas with policy makers – on payment reform, on strengthening primary care, on reducing health disparities, on engaging consumers and on preventing illness.”

Data from the company also suggests “the possibilities for savings are in some categories even larger, and opportunities to get at them even more extensive, than are currently being discussed in Washington, D.C.”

Stevens detailed proposals for “unleashing savings” in Medicare, strengthening primary care, and improving end of life care. “We need to strengthen primary care, with new payment models and infrastructure support. Longer term, we need to make primary care a more attractive specialty for new doctors.” he said.

“Arguably the most profound savings opportunity will come from being able to tackle the differences in quality and efficiency of care that exist right across the health care delivery system – differences that are for the most part not explained by differences in patients’ needs or preferences,” Stevens said.