Healthcare Spending in the United States

Health care expenditures is an increasing proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries as its share in GDP increased by an average of nearly 2 percent annually in last 40 years. Health care expenditures in the US increased 6.2 on average annually between 1991 and 2011. Health care spending consisted 17.9 percent of GDP in the US in 2011.

Medicare and Medicaid assist 111 million individuals of which 10 million individuals are qualified for both programs. By 2025, that number will increase to 139 million individuals. Medicare beneficiaries receive $23,500 for a medium income and Medicaid beneficiaries receive $15,000 (Altman & Frist, 2015). Both programs combined comprise of “39% of national health spending, account for 23% of the federal budget, and generate 43% of hospital revenues” (Altman & Frist, 2015). These programs are predicted to increase by 3.7% each year. Since the two programs affect many individuals, any changes to the programs can shake election turn-out votes. The toughest health policy surrounding Medicare and Medicaid today is whether the programs should remain entitlements.

There are many problems with healthcare in America today. One of them including the astronomical cost. According to CDC.ORG in 2007 the average person spends seven thousand four hundred dollars per year on health care alone. This rise in healthcare is extremely detrimental for families, seniors, and people of all ages. With such a high cost of insurance people are forced to make hard choices in

The costs associated with Medicaid have continued to increase over the years, consuming a larger amount of both federal and state budgets throughout the country. There are now worries about Medicaid eating up state budgets throughout several states. In Kaiser Health News, Rau (2013) reported that "health spending will rise faster than economic growth." With such a significant increase in Medicaid costs, there is the danger of notable shortfalls within the Medicaid spending at the state level. Without adequate reforms, the costs associated with Medicaid threaten to consume a larger portion of state budgets, which could sequentially affect other budget items. An increase in the number of enrollees, growth in provider payments, and an increase in healthcare costs are some of the main reasons for an increase in Medicaid costs. The intricacy of the Medicaid costs problem within the United States is made worse by a decrease in state funds.

Medicaid is the U.S. government’s health insurance program, that furnishes health care coverage to more than 74.7 million eligible adults and children in the country ("Medicaid Enrollees," 2017), with over $553.4 billion reported total health care spending for the fiscal year of 2016 ("Medicaid Spending," 2016). As the number of eligible Medicaid enrollees grows, the amount of health care spending is presumed to accelerate. The 2016-2025 National Health Expenditure Projections showed a 5.6% per year increase in the United States’ national health expenses and a per capita growth of 4.7% per year. However, compared to 2015’s 9.7% Medicaid spending, the projected drop of 6.1% on 2016 is primarily due to the earlier year’s large influx of

In the short run, federal spending on healthcare and healthcare related programs will definitely go up. Some people project that Obamacare will worsen the federal deficit to the tune of more than a hundred billion dollars over its first decade.

Healthcare spending growth rate trends show astounding estimates. Since 1960, spending has risen from $27 billion ($143 per capita, 5.1% pf GDP) to amazing $1,678.9 billion ($5,670 per capita, 15.3% of GDP, 2003 data) (HHS, 2005). Recent research estimated that by 2013, healthcare spending will be as high as 18.4% of the Growth Domestic Product. It is important to note that the gradual move from hospital to ambulatory setting has resulted in much higher spending on outpatient hospital services and prescription drugs. The spending growth for these two trends is much higher than the overall healthcare cost growth, which, in fact, increases faster than such important economic indicators as GDP growth, inflation growth, and population growth rates.

The majority of funding for medical technology and advancements comes from government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies. The National Health Expenditure, within the last fifty years has leapt from $147 per capita in 1960 to $8, 953 in 2012. The portion of the GDP that

In June of 2011, the National Coalition on Health Care reported healthcare spending reached 18.2% of US Gross Domestic Product (GDP), up by 5.1% from the prior year (The National Coalition on Health Care, 2011, p. 1). With a continued climb in spending,

According to federal actuaries, health care spending is anticipated to grow in the coming years as a result of expansion in health insurance coverage. The growth comes about due to law provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act that require the government to subsidize insurance premiums (Congressional Budget Office, 2013). The government is also allocating

United States spending on healthcare amounted to $2.9 trillion in 2013. This cost breaks down to $9,255 per person

Healthcare accounts for more than $1.1 trillion of the federal budget. This is caused by programs like Medicare which covers

Republicans and democrats may disagree on what a health care bill should include, but both parties agree that democratically rising health care costs need to be contained. The U.S government spent more than 2.3 trillion on health care in 2008. more than three times the 714 billion spent in 1990, according to the Kraiser family foundation in 2008 U.S heath care spending an averaged $7,681 per person in 2008. to put that into perspective, the united states spent twice as much on health care as it does on food, according to the Mckinsey Global institute, even though the prevalance of disease is relatively less than in comparable countries. at the time, for consumers premiums continue to rise sharply. Since 1999 they have increased 131 percent

US health care expenditures have been rising quickly over the past few years; it has risen more than the national financial system. Nonetheless a number of citizens in the US still lack appropriate health care. If the truth be told, health care expenditures are going to continue to increase; in addition numerous individuals will possibly have to make difficult choices pertaining to their health care. Our health system has grave problems that require reform, through reforming, there is optimism that there will be an increase in affordable health care and high-quality of care for America. Medicaid, Medicare and private sector insurances are all going through trials and tribulations because of

In the year 2012, expenditure on US health care amounted to 2.8 million trillion dollars, accounting for 17.2 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the US. The annual average cost of health care for the characteristic American family of 4 amounted to more than