WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials Wednesday projected total healthcare spending for 2004 at $1.8 trillion, an increase of 7.5 percent from 2003 final figures.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released its annual report on spending which shows the rate of spending growth has slowed a bit, compared to 2003 when it increased by 7.7 percent. The 2003 figures, however, were the first decline in the growth of healthcare spending following six years of accelerated rates.

CMS predicted the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, which begins Jan. 1, 2006, will raise drug use but reduce out-of-pocket spending by seniors without causing a major increase in the health spending trend.

The growth rate of spending is expected to drop slightly through 2006 and come in at about 7.3 percent per year.

As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, healthcare spending is expected to reach 15.4 percent in 2004, up from 15.3 percent in 2003.



http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/02230004aaa045c0.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking

whereas our GDP grows at about 3.5% on average, doubling roughly every two decades. Extrapolating current rates of growth, in 20 years health care costs will have doubled twice and the economy only once.

Since healthcare costs currently represent over 15% of our current GDP, we can expect them to exceed 25% of the GDP in about 20 years.

Of course this relative growth rate can't continue indefinitely, otherwise our healthcare costs would exceed the total GDP within a century, which would be ridiculous. Something else will happen to change things long before then because it has to.

Gotta love the 'privatized' health care system dontcha? And what do medical malpractice lawsuits amount to? They were $24 billion in 2002. $24,000,000,000/$1,800,000,000,000 = .013 or 1.3%. So if we totally abolished malpractice lawsuits entirely, we wouldn't save any money at all, because the cost of medical care is rising MUCH more than 1.3% per year.

but it points out that not only do we pay more, but we also get less....hell of deal.

Big Pharma's Dirty Little Secret
by Peter Rost

The American healthcare system is the best in the world. Or so we are often told. But is it really true?

It is certainly the best system for drug companies, which can charge the highest prices in the world to some U.S. consumers. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that average prices for patented drugs in 25 other top industrialized nations were 35% to 55% lower than in the United States.

And it is a pretty good system for hospitals, insurance companies and others that deliver healthcare services. Americans spend about twice as much per person for healthcare as do Canadians, Japanese or Europeans, according to the World Health Organization.

But it's not a good system for American citizens. The U.S. has shorter life expectancies and higher infant and child mortality rates than Canada, Japan and all of Western Europe except Portugal, according to the WHO.

I'm a drug company executive who has spent 20 years marketing pharmaceuticals. And I'm troubled. I'm most troubled by the fact that we stick it to the people who can afford it the least.



http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1226-29.htm

It's the extraordinary additional overhead that being lawsuit-averse incurs.

I am not advocating draconian restrictions in malpractice suits, but there clearly is room for reduction of abuse, and more importantly, shifting some of the the emphasis in health care delivery away from keeping lawyers at bay and back to caring for patients.

I worked in an E.R. for seven years. The number of extra tests, extra visits, extra documentation, extra procedures all for the purposes of lessening potential legal exposure is astonishing. The average doctor now spends more time on paperwork than on patient care. Most of it is pure bullshit. Nurses spend extraordinary extra effort on stuff that does not affect their patients' well-being in the least. More bullshit.

99% of the paperwork is related to private insurance companies demanding detailed documentation and prescreening and pre-admission approvals, etc. Doctors and nurses are spending vast amounts of time catering to insurance companies who are doing everything in their power to reduce costs and maximize their profits.

If doctors and nurses didn't have to spend 1/2 their day documenting crap in order to get paid by insurance companies, they could see twice as many patients for 1/2 the price and still make the same amount of money while delivering twice the product.

They don't do the paperwork because they are worried about malpractice. They do it because insurance companies won't pay them unless they do it, and even then, unless they fill out the insurance companies form exactly right with the exact preconditions for the exact treatment prescribed, they aren't going to get paid.

I agree that there's a lot of paperwork generated by insurance company regs, but it's not nearly as much as the defensive paperwork. I used to fill out those charts, so I know what I'm talking about. Most of the insurance paperwork involves justifications and approvals for procedures, which tends to restrict, rather than promote, expenditure. Think about it: if the insurance cos want to pinch every penny (and they do!), why would they add huge layers of cost to the process? It will only come out of their hide. They have strong incentives not to add costs, but to subtract them.

I appreciate your perspective. What I've found is that this is a hot-button issue with a lot of people. Opinions tend to be based on assumptions rather than facts. If you believe that insurance cos are all pirates, then everything starts to look like an insurance co scam. If you believe doctors are all greedy bastards, then everything starts to look like a doctor rip-off. Etc., etc.

From my own direct experience, I see that doctors and nurses work very hard, and only some of that hard work is directed toward actual patient care. A substantial portion goes for nonmedical, liability-avoidance makework. God, I used to hate doing that stuff. It costs not only money, but huge quantities of time and discomfort for the patients, as well.

it's 8.5% of GDP, in US it's 15.4%.
Per capita, the US spends 3 times as much. $1,750/person in Sweden v. $5,500/person in US. (on edit: now $6,000 in US)
In Sweden everyone has insurance, in US 46 million have none.
Sweden has more doctors and nurses per thousand than the US.
And to top it off, the Swedes live longer.

Piratized healthcare is what we've got.

'consume' more healthcare, in terms of the types of procedures/care people receive. The rate of procedures such as cardiac catheterization and bypass surgery for example is quite a bit higher than in european countries from what I read. Even with a shameful number of uninsured individuals, the people who generally require more medical care - the elderly - have access to it through Medicare. For example, if Medicare is paying for a cardiac defibrillator (very souped-up pacemaker), the device alone will cost from $5,000 to $10,000, before considering the hospital & physician costs. Stuff like that goes a long way towards raising the national spending average.

They just keep voting for corrupt scum.

Even though the privatized health care system does a poor job keeping people healty, it sure as hell bloats the GNP! How else could the US GNP be growing at 4% rate, as a solid proof of the superiority of American Capitalism, if not for the healthily growing market of the health care business! (OK, some creative book keeping too, but we don't have to mention that...)

Shees! You people just don't have your priorities right!

Americans aren't spending any money at all on it, just think how much we would be spending then!!!

Healthcare in America is gone completely mad !!!

that the fool and his cohorts are going to leave?

"CMS predicted the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, which begins Jan. 1, 2006, will raise drug use but reduce out-of-pocket spending by seniors without causing a major increase in the health spending trend."

Yep, and a massive tax cut to the wealthy plus a 5 billion dollar week war won't dramatically increase the federal deficit, either.

The only thing more shocking than the amount of gall it takes to make such idiotic pronouncements with a straight face is fact that the so called "mainstream" media reports it as true and the sheeple just go ahead and believe it.

Bleat away sheep- and watch health expenditures continue to rise sharply over the next 4 years. Some of you will lose what paltry coverage you have. Too bad. You've earned it....

What ever happened to the 9 billion dollars that was "lost" in Iraq???

Hmmmmmmm........makes ya wonder!:think:

If we got our bloated military spending under control, we could solve the US health care crisis.

needs a One Payer system!!! This inflation in Healthcare is rediculous

a friend of mine got a bill by a Speech Pathologist which was for $500/hour???

its like people bill absolutely ridiculously!!!

Its absolute rape of sick people!!!