US Health Care Spending Increases At Slowest Rate In Decade
Posted on: Tuesday, 6 January 2009, 13:22 CST
Health care spending in the US continues to rise despite findings of a new federal report showing the lowest growth rate of spending on health care in a decade in 2007.
In 2007, money spent on hospitals, doctors and other health related services rose to $2.2 trillion – an increase of 6.1 percent.
Health spending amounted to an average of $7,421 per person in 2007, according to the report. This represented 16.2 percent of US gross domestic product, up slightly from 16 percent in 2006.
However, spending increased at the lowest rate since 1998. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report attributed this to less spending on drugs due to the introduction of low-cost generic drugs and drug safety concerns.
"Increased safety concerns for certain prescription drugs in 2007 also likely influenced the drug spending trend, as the Food and Drug Administration issued 68 'black box' warnings, compared to 58 in 2006 and 21 in 2003," according to the report.
"In 2007, retail prescription drug spending increased 4.9 percent to $227.5 billion; this was a deceleration from 8.6 percent growth in 2006," the CMS team wrote, adding that this is the slowest rate since 1963, according to the report.
Generic drugs, which cost 30 percent to 80 percent less than brand names, accounted for 67 percent of the market.
"Slower spending growth for prescription drugs was one of the major factors driving down overall healthcare spending growth in 2007," said Micah Hartman, a statistician at CMS who worked on the report.
Hartman said the slowing trend actually started in 2002.
Since prescription drugs generate only about 10 percent of all health spending, officials question how much longer the transition to generics would dampen the growth in health care costs.
"I wouldn't expect the good news to continue," Richard Foster, chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the Associated Press.
"This is another reminder that the cost of health care continues to be a real and pressing concern facing the American public and the federal government," Kerry Weems, CMS acting administrator, said in a statement.
"This report -- like the reports issued last year on the financial status of Medicare and Medicaid -- is a stark reminder that we must redouble our ongoing efforts to reform the delivery of health-care services in this country to bring about the goal of affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans."
---
On the Net:
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
Related Articles
- Lil' Drug Store Products, Inc. Introduces Bold New Health and Beauty Care Category Management Program
- Capital Health Plan of Tallahassee Selects Health Dialog for Care Management Services
- Research and Markets: Antibiotics and Drug Resistance 2007 - Drug Innovation and the Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms
- Community Health Systems to Participate in the 2007 UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference
- Crdentia Awarded Joint Commission Health Care Staffing Services Certification
- Capital District Physicians' Health Plan Selects Health Dialog to Provide Care Management Services
- Rockville-Based Amisys Synertech to Provide Health Care Administration Services to NY Nonprofit HMO
- Rockwell Medical Technologies, Inc. Signs Concentrate Supply Agreement With Fletcher Allen Health Care Renal Services
- Joint Commission Awards Health Care Staffing Services Certification to Medical Staffing Network
- PacifiCare Licenses IHCIS Benchmarks for Online Consumer-Driven Health Care Cost Service
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds