Health Care Costs To Top $8,000 Per Person

A new government report on medical costs paints a stark picture for President Barack Obama, who is expected to call for a health care overhaul in a speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress.

Even before lawmakers start debating how care is delivered to the American people, the report shows the economy is making the job of reform harder.

Health care costs will top $8,000 per person this year, consuming an ever-bigger slice of a shrinking economic pie, says the report by the Department of Health and Human Services, due out Tuesday.

As the recession cuts into tax receipts, Medicare's giant hospital trust fund is running out of cash more rapidly, and could become insolvent as early as 2016, the report said. That's three years sooner than previously forecast.

At the same time, the government's already-large share of the nation's health care bill will keep growing.

Programs such as Medicaid are expanding to take up some of the slack as more people lose job-based coverage. And baby boomers will soon start reaching 65 and signing up for Medicare. Those trends together mean that taxpayers will be responsible for more than half of the nation's health care bill by 2016 - just seven years from now.

"The outlook for health spending during these difficult economic times is laden with formidable challenges," said the report by statisticians at HHS. It appears in the journal Health Affairs.

The health care cost forecast did not take into account recent legislation that expanded medical coverage for children of low income working parents, and added to the government's obligations.

The report "accelerates the day of reckoning," said economist John Palmer of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

"It is bringing home more immediately the problematic dimensions of what we face," added Palmer, who has served as a trustee overseeing Social Security and Medicare finances. "The picture was bad enough ten years from now, but the fact that everything is accelerating gives greater impetus to be concerned about health reform."

The report found health care costs will average $8,160 this year for every man, woman and child, an increase of $356 per person from last year.

Meanwhile, the number of uninsured has risen to about 48 million, according to a new estimate by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The government statisticians estimated that health costs will reach $13,100 per person in 2018, accounting for $1 out of every $5 spent in the economy.

Policy makers would like to slow the rate of increase in spending, but that has proven difficult, because American-style medicine care relies on intensive use of costly high-tech tests and procedures.

In a separate report, also due out Tuesday, private researchers looked at spending on medical conditions and found that the most costly were mental disorders - including Alzheimer's - and heart problems.

The White House says President Obama believes that out-of-control costs are the main obstacle to securing coverage for all.

"Health care costs are crushing middle class families and the small businesses that fuel job growth in this country," said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. "President Obama believes that if we're going to get our economy back on track, we have to act quickly to address this pressing issue."

[leslievbishop]

thank you for running this report. Please continue to follow this situation.

[jsaarikko]

brainteaser2 -you are only partway there. go to site below. click last tab.
scottyusa - learn how an intelligent society protected against the collapse of the 401k's. They lost only 12-1/2 percent vs our 50%.

universalhealthcareinfousa.com

[brainteaser2]

Its a combination of the for profit insurance industry and Big pharma. Health care doesn't have to be as expensive as it is. We basically pay for the people who eat, drink, smoke etc. and feel its their right to act irresponsibly. In addition we do not need to use brand name drugs that have never been shown to be superior to the old standards and generics. Health care providers shouldn't have to face the med-mal industry for each and every thing that doesn't go right.

[brettwashere]

I supposed your refering to people who over eat and drink alcohol rather than just eating and drinking during meals. Fact is, smokers are of the poorest demographic in our society, who rarely go to the doctor when they get sick, encruing less than half of the health care costs as non smokers - yet they are taxed over three dollars a pack or about one thousand dollars a year for health care they rarely recieve. If you want to make health care affordable - take insurance out of the picture entirely, make doctors salaried through the state, and establish tort reforms to indemnify them from malpractice - but not from peer or board review and sanction.

[scottyusa]

I am 59 and with my 401k tanked and the cost of insurance my retirement went down the drain until I am at least 70 now. If I retired today my health insurance rate is $1012 a month for me and the mrs. That my friends is "group rates"!

[jsaarikko]

Has anyone asked the question "why do health care costs continuously rise more than the annual rate of inflation?'
Answer correctly and you solve the country's problem

[mcvet-1]

People THIS is embarrassing! We PAY more for less than anyone else... We have to do better!

[jsf14]

Decreasing obesity would lower the overall healthcare costs. If we outlawed junk food (maybe all prepared food) would the hit to the economy equal the savings in health-care costs?

[cloftoid]

I am a 57 year old and my private health insurance premiums per year are $8028.00 or $669 per month...that does not include any real health care costs...just the insurance costs...as people over 55 know, they really sock it to you at that age and on...and just think, i have an upcoming dental bill of almost $15,000.00. I have no dental insurance. The health care system, like the economy, banking system and government is run by greedy, incompetent and uncaring individuals...as the middle and lower middle class is wiped out, the interlocking directorate will think of more ways of taking all your salary just to live...water, power, air, energy, health care, housing, food, insurance takes every penny the average person has...there are no more vacations, savings accounts, going out to eat and to the movies....everyday we read about new corruption and greed at every level of our society. We need to jail and take away all the money these corporate and individual criminals made by robbing the taxpayer of everything they have. Government needs to take care of human needs...medicare, social security, disability need to be funded, not spending billions to see if there is ice on mars...a government must maintain defense, clean water and air, roads, bridges, etc. and not "legally" fund large corporate and special interest projects that benefit the few.