Hospitals nationwide are spending billions on large new facilities in a medical arms race to dominate markets and increase profits, while ultimately raising health care costs for patients, taxpayers and anyone with insurance. From 2008 through Nov. 1, U.S. hospitals borrowed $144 billion through public bond issues for construction, refinancing, equipment and other expenses, the Tribune-Review found as part of a yearlong investigation into the rising cost of health care.
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As health care reform marks its one-year anniversary, a new Deloitte report reveals that consumers are spending $363 billion, or 14.7 percent more, on health care than traditionally reported in official government accounts. This spending falls outside of conventionally-counted health care costs such as doctors, prescriptions, hospitals and health insurance coverage. Demonstrating the significance of the amount consumers now spend on health care, the additional costs captured in the new Deloitte study support an increase in consumer discretionary spending on health care from 16.2 percent, for items traditionally reported by the government, to 19.9 percent, which surpasses housing and utility costs at 18.8 percent. More than half of the spending ...
Good health is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only do you feel better, you probably paid less for health insurance than some of your co-workers. In recent years, many large employers have passed on the rising cost of health insurance in the form of higher deductibles and co-payments -- costs borne primarily by those who use health care. This year, though, the pain will be shared, according to an analysis by Towers Watson, a human resources consultant. Employers will pass on cost increases primarily through higher employee premium contributions. Towers Watson projects that 66 percent of companies will increase employees' share of premiums for single- only coverage in 2012, and 73 percent will increase the share of premiums for dependent coverage. Another survey by the National Busine...
By Gordon Lubold | Politico LOOKING TO PUSH his cost-cutting changes to new realms, Defense Secretary Robert Gates might set his sights on runaway military health care costs - an area that members of Congress have so far been reluctant to tackle.
Controlling health care costs has grabbed first place away from the weather in the contest for most-discussed but least-acted-upon concern. There are huge forces driving costs upward. Forty-five years ago, there were no CAT scans or MRIs, and few women received mammograms. Joint replacement surgery was uncommon. Coronary bypass surgery was in its infancy. Modern endoscopes were just being developed, so laparoscopic and robotic surgery modalities were not available. Automatic insulin pumps for diabetics had not been invented. Drugs now available for cancer and arthritis had not been developed. And this is just part of the list of present-day medical miracles we now take for granted.
Large employers looking for ways to reduce health-care costs are finding big savings right under their noses: ineligible dependents being carried on their health insurance plans. With potential savings running into millions of dollars for larger employers, the search for the ineligible is becoming as much a part of reducing health-care costs as mail-order prescription services. More commonly cited factors driving up health-care costs are government mandates that require fixed levels of care, the aging workforce, pricey new drugs, and the expense of providing care to uninsured Americans, which gets passed along to both workers and employers through premium hikes. But weeding out employees and their dependents who are improperly receiving health benefits is a relatively direct way to driv...
At a time when premiums are rising inexorably and General Motors cites health care costs as a primary reason that it is hemorrhaging red ink, American companies could be forgiven for trying to find someone - the government, for instance - to shoulder the burden of health care benefits. But, wary of any reform that might also impose mandates on private industry, few companies are seeking systemic change in the U.S. health care system. Instead, companies like Starbucks, Verizon and Pitney Bowes are advocating market solutions. At a recent Capitol Hill health care cost summit sponsored by CNBC, company leaders called for innovation, improved quality, greater transparency and empowered consumers as the best solutions to the health care cost crisis.
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