051809 Health Care Description of Policy Options.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform:
Proposed Health System Savings and Revenue Options
The U.S. health care system is in crisis. This crisis is not limited to the 46 million who lack
health insurance – it extends to those who have health coverage but are worried about increasing
costs. Rising health care costs affect families and American businesses, as health insurance
premiums continue to outpace wages and inflation. Between 1999 and 2008, premiums for
employer-sponsored health benefits increased 117 percent for families and individuals and 119
percent for employers. And annual health spending growth is expected to outpace average annual
growth in the overall economy by 2.1 percentage points in each of the next ten years. In 2009 alone,
health spending will increase 5.5 percent while gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to decrease
0.2 percent.
Rising health care costs also have a significant impact on federal and state health care programs.
Last week’s release of the 2009 Medicare Trustees Report indicates that the Medicare Hospital
Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2017, two years earlier than last year’s report.
Spending for Medicare and Medicaid is projected to increase by 114 percent in ten years. Over
the same period, the GDP is projected to grow by just 64 percent. Last year, health spending in
the U.S. represented 16.6 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) – a much greater share
than any other industrialized country. And according to the most recent National Health
Expenditure estimates, health care expenditures will consume over 20 percent of the GDP by
2018, an amount representing $4.4 trillion in annual spending.

and much more……..

051809 Health Care Description of Policy Options.pdf (application/pdf Object)