Health Spending Consumes More Of U.S. Economy, Will Tip Toward Government
A new report by federal actuaries shows government programs will pay
for more than half of all U.S. health care spending by 2012, and that
total spending on health grew as a share of the economy by 1.1 percent
last year to 17.3 percent, the largest leap ever, the Los Angeles Times
reports. "The almost $2.5 trillion spent in 2009 was $134 billion more
than the previous year, when healthcare consumed 16.2% of the gross
domestic product, according to an annual report by independent
actuaries at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or
CMS, scheduled for release Thursday" (Levey, 2/4).
"For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it's happening anyway," the Associated Press/Washington Post
reports. "The shift to a health care sector dominated by government is
being speeded up by the deep economic recession and the aging of the
Baby Boomers, millions of whom will soon start signing up for
Medicare," the AP reports. And, the shift could come as early as next
year if Congress blocks scheduled cuts to physicians' Medicare payments
(Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/4).
Gail Wilensky, a former director of the Medicare agency, told Kaiser Health News,
the report is "a reminder of the challenges ahead of us, particularly
with regard to the huge, unfunded liability of Medicare, which
[suggests] those public sector dollars are likely to grow unless we
significantly redesign." The government share is expected to continue
increasing to 52 percent in 2019, the last year predicted in the report
(Weaver, 2/4).
Also, as Bloomberg
reports, "All health-care spending will probably grow at an average
annual rate of 6.1 percent from 2009 through 2019, which is 1.7
percentage points faster than the projected growth in the economy, as
measured in gross domestic product, the economists said. Obama budget
director Peter Orszag said yesterday in Congressional testimony that
"health-care costs will fuel a growing budget deficit and 'we cannot
close the long-term fiscal shortfall' without bringing them under
control" (Thomas, 2/4).
USA Today
reports, "Experts such as Gary Claxton, who studies health care costs
for the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, say the growth in
medical spending has been rising faster than the economy for decades.
The report, he said, is the latest warning. 'It's a reminder, but it's
no different from what we've known,' he said. 'As long as it's growing
faster, it's going take over more and more of the economy'" (Fritze,
2/4).
posted by: IAH,on Feb 08, 08:16
Source: Kaiser Health News
URL:
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2010/February/04/Health-care-spending.aspx