Health Spending Rose in ’09, but at Low Rate
By ROBERT PEAR
NYT
WASHINGTON — Total national health spending grew by 4 percent in 2009, the slowest rate of increase in 50 years, as people lost their jobs, lost health insurance and deferred medical care, the federal government reported on Wednesday.
Still, health care accounted for a larger share of a smaller economy — a record 17.6 percent of the total economic output in 2009, the report said. The economy contracted while health spending continued to grow.
The nation spent $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, for an average of $8,086 a person, and the recession had a profound influence.
“Many consumers decreased their use of health care goods and services, partly because they had lost employer-based private health insurance coverage and partly because their household income had declined,” said Anne B. Martin, an economist and principal author of the report, issued by the office of the actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — Total national health spending grew by 4 percent in 2009, the slowest rate of increase in 50 years, as people lost their jobs, lost health insurance and deferred medical care, the federal government reported on Wednesday.
Still, health care accounted for a larger share of a smaller economy — a record 17.6 percent of the total economic output in 2009, the report said. The economy contracted while health spending continued to grow.
The nation spent $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, for an average of $8,086 a person, and the recession had a profound influence.
“Many consumers decreased their use of health care goods and services, partly because they had lost employer-based private health insurance coverage and partly because their household income had declined,” said Anne B. Martin, an economist and principal author of the report, issued by the office of the actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
(More here.)
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