So much is going on today it seems. Or maybe I'm just interested in the news today more than my usual flare.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/health-care-cost-growth-flat-in-2010/2012/01/09/gIQAe5hFmP_blog.html
Quote:
The Obama administration has just published this year’s report and, on the surface, there’s a lot to celebrate. After years of outstripping the rest of the economy, health care costs are now growing at the exact same rate as the rest of the gross domestic product. Over the past two years, in fact, health care costs have grown more slowly than any other point in the past five decades, according to the report, parts of which are published in the journal Health Affairs. They rose 3.8 percent in 2009 and 3.9 percent in 2010:
Quote:
The forces that have driven down the cost of health care, however, aren’t likely to get much celebration at all. The new data link the slowdown to the recession, as more Americans remain uninsured and unable to cover medical spending.
“Although medical goods and services are generally viewed as necessities, the latest recession had a dramatic effect on their utilization,” a team of researchers from the Medicare’s Office of the Actuary write in Health Affairs. “Growth in the use and intensity of services represented just 0.1 percentage point of the 3.7 percent growth in personal health care spending.”
That suggests that the easing of health spending is more a product of the weak economy and less a sign of success in wrestling down health care costs.
But I really wonder how much the Health Care Reform had an impact on these figures.
I was also reading an article today where Florida insurance agencies are protesting the new Federal Health Care law that requires companies to spend at least 80% of the premium dollars from individual plans on medical costs. Apparently, health insurance agencies have been hit hard this year by this requirement - saying they can't cover their overhead costs. had to lay off employees because they can't afford them anymore etc.
If they don't use the full 80%, they are required to reimburse the customer that portion of it. Hmmm... are health Insurance agencies part of the health care costs figures, or are they separate?
Jan 10, 2012 @ 00:54:54
