National Health Care Spending

National Health Care Spending

Melissa Kirk

HCS/440 Economics: The Financing of Health Care

11/25/2013

Professor Geoffrey Suszkowski

National Health Care Spending

National health care spending is a major concern for the United States. Health care spending is a topic that is constantly debated upon. According to the Student National Medical Association, Inc., “The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000 ranked the U.S. health care system first in both responsiveness and expenditure, but 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study)”. It is perplexing that the United States is 37th on the list for overall health care performance but yet they are the first on the list for expenditures. It is unfair to American citizens to have to struggle with such high costs for health care but yet receive mediocre service. In 2007, national health care expenditures in the United States totaled $2.2 trillion or 16% of its gross domestic product, a 14% increase from 2000. This represents an average of more than $7,400 per person (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013). As health care costs gradually increases, our nation continues to search for solutions to control the issue. We will be discussing the current dollar level of nation care expenditures, opinion of if national spending level is too much or not enough, and if the nation should add or cut spending. Topics of how public’s health care needs are paid for by various payers indicating the percent of total expenditures they represent, the major future economic challenge for the health care system providers and how this major challenge should be addressed will also be presented.

Current Level of National Healthcare Spending

According to Tami Luhby, “As the economy picks up, health care spending is expected to increase, rising to an annual growth rate of more than 7% annually by the end of the decade”. The national health care expenditure is...