News flash - healthcare costs are rising fast

By Jim Stergios
September 24th, 2007

Thought I would remind you of that just in case you forgot. The April Governing magazine notes that

State and local spending for health care is rising significantly. Medicaid accounts for the bulk of those expenditures, especially as the costs of long-term care continue to rise.

Pointing to a recent study published in Health Affairs policy journal, Governing goes on to assert that

fallout from Medicare Part D, the federal government’s prescription drug program, is also contributing to the increase. Private payers are covering fewer health care costs, thus increasing the need for state and local governments to step in. “We are,” the study noted, “moving incrementally away from traditional sources of insurance, such as employer-based coverage, to a system comprising more federal and state government-provided health care.”

According to Governing, state and local health care spending has gone from $121 billion in 1993 to $285 billion this year, with the trend worsening significantly to $527 billion by 2016.  Displace another $300 billion in state and local spending, and where’s the money going to come from for education, highway and transit maintenance, etc.?

The headlock being placed on health care delivery by (private and public) payers and providers is the subject of Pioneer’s Hewitt Lecture coming up on Tuesday, September 25, at the Harvard Medical School, featuring Regina Herzlinger, Harvard Business School professor, Manhattan Institute analyst, and author of “Who Killed Health Care?” One of the nation’s most respected health care analysts, Ms. Herzlinger will outline her bold new plan for a consumer-driven system that can deliver affordable high-quality care to everyone.