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Health Care Spending

  • Government Says Health Costs to Keep Growing Faster Than Economy  Associated Press —  U.S. health care spending will keep growing faster than the overall economy in the foreseeable future, squeezing public insurance programs and employers who provide coverage, the government said Wednesday. Annual projections from number crunchers at the Department of Health and Human Services cite an aging population and an uptick in prices for health care services and goods as factors behind the ongoing growth in costs. Spending is projected to rise by an average of 5.5 percent annually through 2026, or about 1 percentage point faster than economic growth. Prescription drugs account for the fastest increase, 6.3 percent a year on average, due to the high cost of advanced medications.

  • U.S. Spending on Drugs Will Grow Faster Than on Other Health Care Services Over the Next Decade Washington Post by Carolyn Y. Johnson — Prescription drug spending will grow faster than any other major medical good or service over the next decade, according to a projection from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The analysis, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimates that by 2026, national health spending will climb to $5.7 trillion, or nearly a fifth of the economy. Prescription drug spending is forecast to grow at 6.3 percent per year, on average, between 2017 to 2026. Drug spending skyrocketed in 2014 and 2015, driven largely by the use of a new generation of curative therapies for hepatitis C. When national health spending data was released in December showing a 1.3 percent increase in spending on prescription drugs in 2016 — a small fraction of the increases in previous years — a pharmaceutical lobby spokeswoman highlighted the trend as evidence of the "nation's competitive marketplace for medicines."

  • U.S. Opioid Crisis Has Cost $1 Trillion Since 2001, Economists Say  NPR by Greg Allen  —  The opioid epidemic has cost the U.S. more than a trillion dollars since 2001, according to a new study, and may exceed another $500 billion over the next three years. The report by Altarum, a nonprofit group that studies the health economy, examined Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality data through June of last year. The greatest financial cost of the opioid epidemic, according to the report, is in lost earnings and productivity losses to employers. Early deaths and substance abuse disorders also take a toll on local, state and federal government through lost tax revenue. These costs are rising. One reason for the increase, says Corey Rhyan, a senior research analyst with Altarum's Center for Value and Health Care, is that more young people are being affected as the epidemic moves from prescription opioids to illicit drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

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