Mid-level Medicare spending growth set for current decade
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Healthcare spending in the US is beginning to accelerate again after a period of only moderate growth. The Health Care Financing Administration last week reported that overall healthcare spending topped $1,200 billion in 1999, up 5.6% on 1998, continuing a six-year trend of growth below 6%. But it estimated that spending jumped 8.3% last year and will rise by almost as much (8%) this year, thereafter growing at a more moderate average annual rate of 7.1% through to 2010.