National Health Spending Slowdown Underwhelms; Obamacare Hurting Middle Class

The media got more than usually excited about the latest National Health Expenditures (NHE) produced by actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Modern Healthcare reported that “healthcare spending growth hit 53-year low in 2013,” noting that last year’s 3.6 percent growth was the lowest since 1960.

While it is literally true that last year’s increase was the lowest since 1960, growth in 2009 was only 3.8 percent, after 4.8 percent in 2008. You do not need a PhD in economics to conclude that the recession was likely the largest factor. It is hard to detect much more than noise in the annual changes since the recession hit. This is corroborated by the fact that 17.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product is accounted by health care ― exactly the same percentage as in 2009 and every year since.

Read the entire column at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.