U.S. Healthcare Costs Increased $1 Trillion in 17 Years
“When we added up all the health conditions, increasing population size led to a 23% increase in health care spending,” said Dr. Joseph Dieleman of the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation at the University of Washington, the lead author of the study, published today (11/7) in JAMA. “People getting older led to a 12% increase in spending, and increases in price and service intensity, that is the variety and complexity of services, led to a 50% increase in spending.”
Most importantly, increases in spending also vary dramatically depending on people’s conditions and types of care, such as inpatient, outpatient, pharmaceuticals, and others, he said. Health care spending on outpatient care increased a dramatic 85% between 1996 and 2013, largely due to increasing use of services. Spending on inpatient care grew 59% because of price increases and service intensity.
“These findings offer insight into why the US spends so much on health care,” said Dr. Jay Want, executive director of the Peterson Center on Healthcare, which funded the study. “Increased health care spending is driven more by how care is priced and delivered to patients than by the population’s size or age. The research suggests the need for more efforts to address those forces that control pricing.”
The study covers health care spending for individuals and includes spending on inpatient care, outpatient care, nursing facilities, emergency departments, dental care, and prescribed pharmaceuticals. It also includes funding from all payers, such as private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and households’ own spending.