Are We Spending TOO MUCH on Health Care?

BIG NUMBERS

Today, we spend $3.5 TRILLION on health care in the U.S. (www.healthafairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20181206.671046/full/)
Health spending is expected to grow by 5.5% annually and reach $6 TRILLION BY 2027 (www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05499)

DIGGING DEEPER

Researchers analyzed spending for 7 top diseases between 1995 & 2015 and the impact on patient health  (www.npcnow.org/blog/study-finds-costs-dropped-outcomes-improved-major-causes-death-and-illness-between-1995-and)

What did they find?

Without adjustments for INFLATION and PREVALENCE, costs appear only to be RISING.
But with adjustments for INFLATION and PREVALENCE, patient costs FELL in several diseases & ROSE MODESTLY in others.
And health spending was associated with patient health improvements in 6 of 7 conditions.

A CLEARER PICTURE

When researchers dug deeper and accounted for INFLATION, PREVALENCE and HEALTH OUTCOMES -  Measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) - a clearer picture of health spending in top conditions emerged:

Lower Spending, Improved Health

• Lung cancer
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Ischemic heart disease
• HIV/AIDS

Higher Spending, Improved Health

• Breast cancer
• Diabetes

Higher Spending, Poorer Health

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

THE TAKEAWAY

Policies based on only aggregate health spending figures may mean the wrong areas of health spending are targeted.
Health spending data that:

• adjusts for increases in prevalence and inflation
• accounts for patient outcomes

will enable sound, disease-specific policy solutions that address health spending and improve outcomes for patients.
Go deeper on health spending by visiting GoingBelowTheSurface.org And visit npcnow.org for more.
Website: https://www.npcnow.org/
Twitter: @npcnow, https://twitter.com/npcnow

National Pharmaceutical Council