U.S. healthcare spending grew by 5.8 percent during 2015 and per-capita healthcare spending grew by 5 percent over that year, according to a study by CMS’s Office of the Actuary.
CMS emphasized that the growth rates continued to fall below the rates of most years prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act. Moreover, the report concluded that 2015 pending growth was primarily caused by increased use and intensity of services now that millions of Americans have obtained coverage.
“Our significant progress in reducing the nation’s uninsured rate, while providing strong protections for Americans if they get sick, would not be possible without the Affordable Care Act,” said CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt. “As millions more Americans have obtained health insurance, per-person cost growth remains at historically modest levels.”
Over a two-year period, 20 million Americans gained either private health insurance coverage or enrolled in the Medicaid program, primarily as the result of the Affordable Care Act, according to the report. The share of the population with health coverage increased from 86 percent in 2013 to 90.9 percent in 2015.
Another key contributor to 2015’s health spending increase was the continued significant growth in spending for retail prescription drugs. Spending on prescription drugs increased 9 percent in 2015, lower than the 12.4 percent growth in 2014, yet significantly higher compared to 2.3 percent growth in 2013, CMS reported.
Other key findings:
- Healthcare spending grew 2.1 percent faster than the U.S. economy during 2015, resulting in a 0.4 percentage-point increase in health spending’s share of gross domestic product (GDP): from 17.4 percent in 2014 to 17.8 percent in 2015. In the decade prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (2000-2009), healthcare spending increased 2.8 percentage points faster than GDP, on an annual average basis.
- Medicare spending increased by 1.7 percent per enrollee, which was roughly the same rate as in 2014 and below the 7 percent average annual growth in per-enrollee spending during 2000-2009. Medicare spending, which represented 20 percent of national healthcare spending in 2015, grew 4.5 percent to $646.2 billion, slightly slower than the 4.8 percent growth in 2014.
- Out-of-pocket spending totaled $338.1 billion and grew 2.6 percent in 2015, compared to average annual growth in out-of-pocket spending during 2000 and 2009 of 4.6 percent. The share of out-of-pocket spending of total health expenditures fell from 13 percent in 2007 to 11 percent in 2015.
- Medicaid spending and enrollment grew at a slower rate in 2015 than in 2014, with per-enrollee Medicaid spending growing 3.8 percent. Medicaid spending, totaled $545.1 billion and accounted for 17 percent of total spending on healthcare.
The full report will appear on the CMS website at http://bit.ly/2gr0uOY.