Report: Healthcare spending to accelerate to 7.4% in 2014
By HME News Staff
Updated Fri June 15, 2012
WASHINGTON - U.S. health spending is projected to grow at 4%, on average, for 2011-2013, slightly above the historically low rate of 3.8% in 2009, according to a CMS annual report published online today in Health Affairs.
Preliminary data suggest that growth in the use of health services by consumers remained slow in 2011—a pattern that the report's authors expect to continue in 2012-13. As major coverage expansions from the Affordable Care Act begin in 2014, however, health spending is expected to accelerate to 7.4%.
Health spending is projected to grow at 5.7%, on average, annually for 2011-21. That's 0.9% faster than the expected annual increase in the gross domestic product for that time period.
Federal, state and local government healthcare spending is projected to be nearly 50% of national health expenditures by 2012, up from 46% in 2011, with federal spending accounting for about two-thirds of the total government share.
Driving the rising government spending on health care: Faster growth in Medicare enrollment, expanded Medicaid coverage, and new premium and cost-sharing subsidies for health insurance exchange plans.
To read the report, go to http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2012/06/11/hlthaff.2012.0404.full
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