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Medicare & Medicaid News

Medicare, Other Health Care Spending Slowing but Cost Controls Must Be Implemented

New England Journal of Medicine study finds health spending rose just 0.8% per person in 2012, Affordable Care Act measures to control costs may be contributing to biggest slowdown in decades

Dec. 26, 2013 The growth of health care cost is slowing and at least a portion is due to actions stemming from Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), but regardless of the causes, the U.S. needs to try to control health spending. An analysis, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, also finds that a broad, bipartisan consensus about strategies that will be effective in controlling costs has emerged.

According to a new study by David Blumenthal, M.D., and Kristof Stremikis of The Commonwealth Fund and David Cutler, Ph.D., of Harvard University, health care spending rose only moderately last year for the third year in a row, increasing by 0.8 percent per person, slightly less than the rate of growth of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

This trend marks a departure from the previous five decades, and may be fueled in part by payment reforms contained within the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

While analysts are divided on whether the new trend is a result of the recession or recent efforts to control spending, the authors of Health Care Spending: A Giant Slain or Sleeping? argue that, either way, the U.S. will need to reengineer health services to make them more efficient - to go after the one-third of health spending that is estimated to be wasteful.

Blumenthal and his coauthors outline the areas of agreement among health policy experts about the actions that are needed to achieve this goal.

Understanding Slower Health Care Cost Growth

Originally posted here:

Medicare, Other Health Care Spending Slowing but Cost Controls Must Be Implemented