Economy Can’t Be All That’s Slowing Health Costs
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A new set of projections released last week by Medicare’s actuaries has drawn much attention, in part because it suggests the deceleration in the growth of health costs we’ve seen over the past few years is ephemeral. The actuaries attribute the slowdown to the “lingering effects of the economic downturn and sluggish recovery” and to increases in cost sharing.
Both of these explanations have serious shortcomings -- and that, in turn, suggests something larger is in fact at work.