The article referenced in yesterday’s blog entry about health care cost trends is available at Health Affairs. Here’s the abstract…
“National health spending growth is anticipated to remain stable at just over 7.0 percent through 2006, the result of diverging public- and private-sector spending trends. The faster public-sector spending growth is exemplified by the introduction of the new Medicare drug benefit in 2006. While this benefit is anticipated to have only a minor impact on overall health spending, it will result in a significant shift in funding from private payers and Medicaid to Medicare. By 2014, total health spending is projected to constitute 18.7 percent of gross domestic product, from 15.3 percent in 2003.
The slowdown in national health spending growth is expected to continue into 2004, with growth edging downward to 7.5 percent from 7.7 percent in 2003 (Exhibits 1 and 2).1 Over the next ten years, growth is expected to slow to 6.7 percent between 2013 and 2014, well below the peak of 9.3 percent growth that occurred between 2001 and 2002. Despite the anticipated deceleration, these growth rates outpace the milder inflationary experience of the mid-1990s, when growth averaged 5.3 percent from 1993 through 1998. Over the 2003-14 period, national health spending is forecast to continue growing faster than gross domestic product (GDP). The consequence is a projected increase in health’s share of GDP from 15.3 percent in 2003 to 18.7 percent by 2014.”
And here’s the takeaways…
1. Prescription drug costs will be the largest single contributor to growth in public health care costs.
2. Private coverage for drugs will decrease among Medicare eligibles as the Medicare Prescription Drug coverage program goes into effect starting in 2006.
3. While overall medical inflation will remain 2-3 times the overall rate of inflation, private health care plans will very likely see signficantly highertrend rates . As public programs cut expenses, cost-shifting will undoubtedly follow.
Feb
25
