Overall U.S. health care spending grew slowly in 2008, but government health care spending soared, researchers report.
Total national health expenditures increased 4.4% in 2008, to more than $2.3 trillion, while national health expenditures per person increased 3.5%, to $7,681.
Meanwhile, because federal health care spending rose as the recession was decreasing tax revenue, 2008 health care expenditures "accounted for almost 36% of federal receipts, up considerably from 28% in 2007," according to a team of researchers led by Micah Hartman, a statistician in the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In 2007, the overall rate of NHE increase was 6%, and the per-capita rate of increase was 5%, the researchers report.
The researchers published the NHE statistics in a paper published in the January edition of Health Affairs, a scientific journal that focuses on the delivery and financing of health care.
Other NHE findings:
- Total NHE consumed 16.2% of 2008 national gross domestic product, up from 15.9% in 2007.
- Private employers' expenditures on health insurance increased just 1.2%, to $383 billion.
- Private individuals' "out of pocket" health care spending increased 2.8%, to $109 billion.
- Total enrollment in private health insurance plans fell to 195.4 million, from 196.4 million.
Federal government health care spending increased more than 10%, to $536 billion.
Federal government pending rose partly because Congress increased Medicaid funding by $7 billion, to help states cope with the effects of the financial crisis, and partly because of a 15% increase in Medicare spending, to $196 billion, the researchers report.
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans rose more than 13% in 2008, and government Medicare Advantage spending increased 21%, to $108 billion, the researchers write.
"Health care spending continues to rise faster than the economy as a whole, further straining family budgets and crowding out of other urgent domestic priorities, such as education, energy, and the environment," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, Washington, says in a statement about the researchers' figures. "The latest national health expenditure data demonstrate why health care reform needs to include a long-term strategy to reduce the growth of health care costs."
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