National Health Care Spending In 2018: Growth Driven By Accelerations In Medicare And Private Insurance Spending.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Non-clinical macroeconomic accounting report; graded Level 4 by design analogy.
PubMed 31804875 · doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01451
What was done
Annual descriptive accounting analysis of US national health expenditures, spending by payer (Medicare, private insurance), personal health care spending, health spending share of gross domestic product, and national uninsured population counts for 2018 compared to 2016 and 2017.
What was found
US health care spending increased 4.6% to reach $3.6 trillion in 2018, accelerating from 4.2% growth in 2017 and matching the 4.6% rate in 2016. Health care spending as a share of the economy declined to 17.7% in 2018 from 17.9% in 2017. The 0.4-percentage-point acceleration was driven by faster growth in Medicare and private health insurance (influenced by the reinstatement of the health insurance tax). Personal health care spending growth remained unchanged from 2017 at 4.1% (accounting for 84% of total spending). The uninsured population grew by 1.0 million to reach 30.7 million in 2018.
Why it matters
Provides official national tracking of healthcare expenditures and insurance coverage trends, identifying key spending drivers such as policy changes and payer-specific accelerations.
Limits
The abstract reports purely aggregate, descriptive macroeconomic data and does not provide patient-level outcomes, clinical metrics, regional variations, or a breakdown separating price increases from utilization volume changes.
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