• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Healthcare spending decreased overall in 2003, CMS says

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, January 14, 2005

The pace of health spending growth slowed in 2003; it grew 7.7% in 2003 to $1.7 trillion, down from a 9.3% growth rate in 2002, according to a report by CMS' Office of the Actuary.

It's the first deceleration in national health spending growth in seven years, according to the annual report, published in the January/February 2005 issue of Health Affairs.

On a per capita basis, health spending increased by $353 to $5,670.

Private payers-mainly private health insurance and payments by individuals for co-pays, deductibles, and services not covered by insurance-funded more than half of national health expenditures in 2003, or $913.2 billion.

The public sector funded $766 billion: Medicaid spent $267 billion, just shy of Medicare's $283 billion.

The report also details a slowdown in drug cost growth (10.7%, down from 14.9% in 2002), and a small increase in physician services spending (8.5%, up from 8.2% growth in 2002).

To read more, click here.

To read more detailed national health spending estimates, click here.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive