However, opponents of a universal health-care system call it government overreach. Presidents and lawmakers of both political parties have collaborated to expand Medicare benefits.
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Due to expanded health insurance coverage from the ACA, as well as the aging population and economic growth, health care spending is projected to increase at a rate of 5.8% annually between 2014 and 2024, according to recently published data in Health Affairs.
“We’re grateful in West Virginia for how Medicare and Medicaid have helped the people of our state”, said Terri Giles, executive director of WVAHC.
Even so, the report is “not great news”, said economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank.
They make up 23% of federal spending.
“That’s one of the really important accomplishments of the program that people don’t know about”, said Nancy De Lew, a senior policy expert at the federal Health and Human Services department.
According to the report, U.S. health spending totaled $3.1 trillion in 2014 (Johnson, “Wonkblog”, Washington Post, 7/28).
The health care industry, supported by Sen. No one should have to choose between needed health care or food and shelter.
Today, more than 100 million people receive quality health care through Medicare or Medicaid. Since then, 16 million more adults have gained access to health coverage, and the number of uninsured has dropped by nearly eight percent.
Expensive cures for hepatitis C contributed to a 12.6 percent jump in prescription-drug spending in 2014, the biggest increase in more than a decade.
Private health insurance spending rose an estimated 6.1 percent past year.
Fifty years later, Medicare still provides health insurance for citizens 65 and older, and Medicaid still covers qualifying low-income citizens. The 2013 increase was 6.1 percent. “Indirect effects of the ACA on the market for health care remain highly uncertain, including the behavioral response to reform on the part of consumers, insurers, employers, and providers throughout the projection period”.
With increases in coverage, the share of health expenses that Americans pay out-of-pocket is projected to decline from 11.6% in 2013 to 10% in 2024.
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Earlier this year, a report analyzed Medicaid expansion in Kentucky. A stronger economy, falling unemployment and other factors might also have a role to play. By 2030, Medicare will be serving twice as many people as it did in 2000. Economic indicators show that that has resulted in higher hospital and ambulatory spending. Because of the volume of reader comments, we can not review individual moderation decisions with readers. While over the past few years healthcare costs have slowed, as we’ve pointed out, the President shouldn’t be so quick to pat himself on the back unless he’s taking credit for a struggling economy.
