News: CMS says health spending slowed in 2009

CDI Strategies - Volume 5, Issue 3

In a recent National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) report, the group indicated that U.S. healthcare spending growth decelerated in 2009, increasing 4% percent compared to 4.7% in 2008. Total health expenditures reached $2.5 trillion, which translates to $8,086 per person or 17.6% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, up from 16.6% in 2008. The NHEA report represents the official estimates of total healthcare spending in the United States. 

Spending by Medicaid grew 9%, up from 4.9% in 2008, as more people became eligible for and enrolled in the program, according to a January 6 report from the American Hospital Association’s News Now. Medicaid hospital costs ballooned to 10.2%, up from 3.3% in 2008, AHA reported, while private spending slowed to 2.7%, theoretically due to lost employer-based coverage or reduced income, CMS said.
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