Healthcare Expenses will Continue Brisk Climb

Is it that, as a species, we’re just getting sicker and sicker more often?  How else to account for the dramatic rise in health care costs?

According to experts, $1 out of every $5 spent in the next decade will be healthcare related.  This is everything from health insurance itself to the cost of medicines and how much we’re expected to fork over in co-pays.

The numbers don’t get much better either.  According to an AP article: “Over the coming decade, spending on health care will continue to outpace the overall economy. By the year 2016, it will total nearly $4 trillion.”  The AP got its facts and figures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Back to the original question: it’s not so much that we’re getting sicker.  It would seem to be that our means for getting well just cost more than they used to.  We’re willing to spend more on the latest treatments, regardless of the cost.  Federal officials cite a significant increase in the use of imaging to detect blockages or other diseases.

There’s a great desire to purchase good health.

The U.S. could be doing a better job of it, however, according to Dr. Mark McClellan, an analyst who used to oversee the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  "We know that much of the spending is going to treatments that are unnecessary or lead to medical errors, so we’re not getting nearly as much value as we should," McClellan told the AP.

In the hopes of slowing this fiscally out of control train of crazy health down a little, experts are calling for a better educated populace.  The administration is pushing government agencies, insurers and health care providers to make information available that would help consumers become good shoppers. For example, Medicare lists the percentage of pneumonia patients at various hospitals who received a timely antibiotic, an indicator of the quality of care.

There’s also talk of government programs that will gradually replace employers when it comes to providing health insurance for millions of Americans.  "We are moving incrementally away from traditional sources of insurance, such as employer-based coverage, to a system comprising more federal and state government-provided health care," said the economists, whose report will be published in the journal Health Affairs.