Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation
December 16, 2019
Reproduced from Kaiser Family Foundation;
Chart: Axios Visuals
The cost of
private health insurance is out of control, compared to Medicare and Medicaid.
You see that clearly if you take a long-term view of recently released federal
data on health spending.
Why it matters:
This is why the health care industry — not just insurers, but
also hospitals and drug companies — is so opposed to proposals that would
expand the government's purchasing power. And it’s why some progressives are so
determined to curb, or even eliminate, private coverage.
By the numbers:
Per capita spending for private insurance has grown by 52.6%
over the last 10 years.
- Per-capita spending for Medicare grew by
21.5% over the same period, and Medicaid 12.5%.
Private
insurance generally pays higher prices for care than Medicare, which
generally pays more than Medicaid.
- There’s a long-running debate about
whether public programs deliver efficiency because of their purchasing
power, or simply underpay.
- Democrats have proposed a variety of steps
to curb health care costs, including cutting payments for out-of-network
care, competition from a public insurance plan, and steep payment cuts
through Medicare for All.
- Industry opposes most of them.
The bottom
line: The industry knows cutting government spending can only go so
far. Any effort to rein in health care costs will have to confront the growth
in the cost of private insurance.
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