More on US Health Care and Health Insurance cost

Two new bits in the Inbox today regarding US spending on health care and consumers spending on insurance:

From Health Affairs:
Health Spending In OECD Countries In 2004: An UpdateGerard F. Anderson, Bianca K. Frogner and Uwe E. Reinhardt
In 2004, U.S. health care spending per capita was 2.5 times greater than health spending in the median Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country and much higher than health spending in any other OECD country. The United States had fewer physicians, nurses, hospital beds, doctor visits, and hospital days per capita than the median OECD country. Health care prices and higher per capita incomes continued to be the major reasons for the higher U.S. health spending. One possible explanation is higher prevalence of obesity-related chronic disease in the United States relative to other OECD countries.

From The Kaiser Family Foundation:
Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, less than the 7.7 percent increase reported last year but still higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the overall inflation rate (2.6 percent), according to the 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust. Key findings from the survey were also published today in the journal Health Affairs.The 6.1 percent average increase this year was the slowest rate of premium growth since 1999, when premiums rose 5.3 percent. Since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78 percent, while wages have gone up 19 percent and inflation has gone up 17 percent.

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