In 1980, the national expenditure on health care in the United States was just over 9% of Gross Domestic Product. Today it accounts for nearly twice that — close to 18%. This increase has come at a high price, hitting home most obviously in workers’ pay. According to data published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, workers’ earnings rose by 47% from 1999 to 2012, but their contribution to health insurance premiums during that time went up by 180%. Health insurance premiums rose four and half times faster than the rate of inflation over the same period.
Constraints on Health Care Budgets Can Drive Quality
Innovation lessons from Scotland’s successful national health system.
November 06, 2013