|
 The aging population's higher healthcare costs will also push health
spending higher starting in 2019, according to a study from the
Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Prior to 2014, healthcare spending rates were running around 4
percent per year as the weak economy made people cut back on medical
care that they could not afford.
That trend reversed in 2014, when the national healthcare reform
law, often called Obamacare, extended insurance to millions of
Americans through the expansion of the Medicaid program and new
individual insurance plans.
The insurance expansion, as well as the price of new hepatitis C
medicines that were introduced last year, contributed to a projected
rise of 5.5 percent in 2014 in healthcare spending, the study found.
Average projected 2015 spending will decline slightly to 5.3 percent
because the number of newly insured will ease compared with 2014 and
because of lower hepatitis C drug prices this year, the study found.
Projected spending for the 2019 to 2024 period will increase to 6.2
percent per year on average due to the aging population, which will
increase the number of people covered by Medicare, the insurance
program for elderly people and the disabled. The aging population
will also increase costs for people with Medicaid coverage,
government researchers said.
People enrolled in the Medicare and Medicaid programs have higher
medical costs than average Americans.
[to top of second column] |
Medical prices are expected to rise above 2 percent per year
starting in 2016, the first increase since 2011 and after years of
historically low levels. That is partly due to expectations for
higher healthcare wages related to the stronger economy.
Changes in private insurance that have shifted the cost of
healthcare to individuals from insurers and employers through higher
deductibles and co-pays will hold back further spending increases,
the study found. Cuts in payments to doctors from the Medicare
program will also hold back costs from rising further.
The government's annual study, published in the August edition of
the Health Affairs journal, increased its 10-year projected spending
increase to 5.8 percent from the 5.7 percent it predicted in last
year's study.
(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
