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Report details national health care spending increases in 2000
Health care spending in the United States rose to $1.3 trillion in 2000, a 6.9 percent increase over the previous year, according to a report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The increase for 2000 compared with a 5.7 percent growth rate in 1999 and was the highest annual increase recorded since 1993, when spending rose by 7.4 percent. CMS economists said the increase primarily reflected a rise in economy-wide inflation. Health care spending averaged $4,637 per person in 2000, compared to $4,377 in 1999. Spending for prescription drugs once again led in the pace of growth in 2000, although at a slower rate than recent years. Drug spending increased by 17.3 percent to a total of $121.8 billion in 2000, compared to 19.2 percent increase to a total of $103.9 billion in 1999. Hospital spending rose to $412 billion in 2000, an increase of 5.1 percent over 1999. Nursing home expenditures, which had been trending downward since 1995, rose by 3.3 percent in 2000. Spending for freestanding home health services increased by 0.3 percent in 2000, after five years of declining growth and actual declines in 1998 and 1999. Spending for Medicare, the federal program for senior citizens and the disabled, was $224 billion in 2000, an increase of 5.6 percent for the year. Medicare accounted for 38 percent of public spending on health care and 17 percent of overall health spending. Increases in Medicare spending were attributed largely to changes in provider payments, including those enacted in the Balanced Budget Refinement Act (BBRA) of 1999. Federal and state spending for Medicaid, a program of health care for low-income families, totaled nearly $202 billion in 2000, an increase of 8.3 percent from 1999. Federal and state spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program was $2.8 billion in 2000, a 55 percent increase from the 1999 level. This program is targeted at children from families with income too high to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough to afford private insurance. The growth in expenditures in 1999 and 2000 slightly outpaced growth in gross domestic product. The share of GDP spent on health care increased from 13.1 percent in 1999 to 13.2 in 2000. |
