AS THE fight over US health reform heats up, an analysis has emerged showing that the crippling cost of not changing the existing system will force people鈥檚 spending on non-medical services to fall even as the country becomes richer overall.
Fears over rising costs have been a critical factor in kick-starting the reform debate. The US spends around $7400 per person per year on healthcare, twice the health costs in Canada, the next highest spender.
This increase is outstripping the nation鈥檚 ability to pay. Over the past decade the rise in health spending has been more than 2 percentage points greater than GDP increases.
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of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues have calculated the long-term impact of this trend (, ). If healthcare costs continue to grow at this rate, they will consume 150 per cent of the extra wealth that Americans would expect to gain as the economy grows between now and 2050.
鈥淗ealthcare will consume 150 per cent of the wealth that Americans would expect to gain by 2050鈥�
The latest healthcare reform bill is due to be unveiled in the Senate this week, but there has been little discussion about limiting costs to individuals. Instead the debate has focused on expanding insurance to those who lack coverage, rather than creating publicly funded health insurance.
