Federal, state and local governments by 2025 will be responsible for 47% of the nation’s health bills-almost 3 percentage points higher than in 2014, the report said. About 8% of Americans are expected to be uninsured in 2025, down from about 11% in 2014, CMS auditors said in the report.
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Healthcare spending in the USA will likely grow by an average 5.8% per year over the next decade, a bit faster than the past 2 years, due to an aging population, rising medical prices and faster economic growth, according to updated projections from the federal government released yesterday.
More babies born in Nash County would survive their first year and live healthier lives if their mothers received health care before pregnancy through Medicaid expansion, according to NC Child, a child advocacy group that found 23 percent of Nash County women of child-bearing age, 19-44, are uninsured.
Much of the projected price growth in the coming years will be driven by expansion of the Medicaid program, private health insurance and expenditures on pharmaceuticals.
The Office of the Actuary doesn’t deny the impact of the Affordable Care Act on national health spending, of course. Medicare will spend an average of about $18,000 a year for every beneficiary by 2025, compared to about $12,000 in 2015. But as the economy has gradually improved, more and more Americans have purchased health insurance and sought better and more expensive medical attention. Total annual health care spending growth is expected to average 5.8 percent over 2015-2025. But in 2013, the governor of Kentucky embraced the Affordable Care Act, expanding Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands of low-income families.
The Obama administration will pass the problem of high health care costs on to the next administration.
Two key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that are created to reduce the number of uninsured Americans-Medicaid expansion and public exchange “marketplaces” where individuals and families can purchase healthcare coverage-fueled a spike in medical service spending in 2014 and a year ago, the expenditures report says. At the same time, CBO said, health care costs per beneficiary will rise more quickly than the overall growth in the economy. Growth is expected to dip to a slightly lower rate of 4.8% in 2016, according to actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That squeezes the ability of federal and state governments to pay, not to mention employers and average citizens.
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There are uncertainties to any estimates of future spending, but the new analysis suggested that economic growth, inflation of prices for medical services and products and the aging population would be the major drivers of spending increases. It will rise to only 10.9 percent in 2025, from 9.8 percent in 2014. More than 9 in 10 (92%) of US residents are projected to be insured by 2025, according to the actuary’s office. It anticipates prescription drug spending growth will drop to 6.3 percent this year, from 8.1 percent in 2015 due to a decline in spending on newly approved drugs, such as Hepatitis C drugs.
