Interpreting New Data On Health Care Spending Growth

Health care spending growth is an important issue, especially since health care spending accounted for 17.5 percent of GDP in 2014. Health care spending growth slowed significantly during, and immediately following, the recession years. Between 2009 and 2012, per capita health spending growth hovered around 3.0 percent compared to 5.3 percent in the five years prior. This slowdown has attracted considerable attention. Cutler and Sahni (2013) note that the slowdown may save as much as $770 billion compared to previous projections, if it persists. An analysis from the Urban Institute projects the associated savings will be $2.5 trillion from 2014-2019. There has also been considerable speculation about whether the slowdown will continue. Some argue that the slowdown was rooted in the recession, with slow growth caused by loss of coverage from unemployment and recession-induced adoption of less generous plans. Often they argue that as the economy recovers, health care spending growth should rebound. Others have argued that the slowdown reflected other factors such as a decline in technological innovation and intensified efforts of providers to slow spending growth in anticipation of system-wide changes, such as lower payment rates and broader payment reform. Evidence suggests that the slowdown started before the recession and affected populations not as strongly or directly affected by the recession. Of course, even if the recession was not the cause of the slowdown, spending gr...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Insurance and Coverage Payment Policy long term spending national spending payment models spending trends Source Type: blogs