Health Facilities Lag Booming Building Market

This morning’s release of a booming construction report from the Census Bureau once again shows lagging spending on new health facilities, especially in the public sector.

Total construction spending topped $1 trillion (annualized) in July, of which less than $41 billion was health care. Health construction spending shrank 0.5 percent from June and grew only 6.4 percent year on year, less than half the rate of growth of all other construction spending.

Separating the data into private and public spending, health construction spending was stagnant in July versus June, while other private construction grew. However, private spending on health care construction has increased 13.3 percent, year on year, versus 17.1 percent for other private construction spending. It still grew a lot, although less than other construction.

It is in the public ledger where health construction has collapsed, year on year, by 12.9 percent. Other public construction spending grew by 6.4 percent.

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