New Study Funded By The Peterson Center On Healthcare Reveals Healthcare Spending Rose By Nearly $1 Trillion Between 1996 and 2013

New Study Funded By The Peterson Center On Healthcare Reveals Healthcare Spending Rose By Nearly $1 Trillion Between 1996 and 2013

A new study published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) reveals that healthcare spending rose by nearly $1 trillion between 1996 and 2013. The research, conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and funded by the Peterson Center on Healthcare, explored five drivers of this growth in spending:

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  A growing population;
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  An aging population;
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  Changes in disease prevalence and incidence;
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  Increases in how often people receive healthcare; and
• Increases in the price and intensity (variety and complexity) of services.

Important takeaways from the study include:

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  Healthcare spending increased 80 percent, or $934 billion, between 1996 and 2013;
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  Changes in both the price and intensity of care led to a 50 percent spending increase—by far, the biggest contributors to spending growth; and
• A growing and aging population only drove spending increases of 23.1 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively...