Five Percent Of Americans Account For Half Of Health Care Costs

The cost of health care may have gone up for almost all Americans in recent years, but a handful of consumers are getting hit especially hard.

Just five percent of Americans accounted for half of the country's health care costs in 2009, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Though the findings indicate that a small share of the population is responsible for much of the country's health care costs, the concentration right at the top is actually going down, the report found -- one percent of Americans accounted for 22 percent of health care costs in 2009, down from 28 percent in 2008.

Baby boomers -- those between the ages of 45 and 64 -- and the elderly were overly represented among the top health care spenders, the report found. Women and white Americans were additionally overly represented among the top health care spenders.
Children and young adults were disproportionately represented among the bottom half of spenders.

Relief from skyrocketing health care costs may be in sight. Overall health care spending as a share of the nation's economy stabilized in 2010, after two years of slow growth, according to a government report released earlier this month. Still, if health care spending is only stabilizing because of the sluggish economy, costs may not be slowing for good.

Indeed, if current estimates prove correct, the nation's health care spending is on track to comprise a fifth of the U.S. economy by the end of the decade, according to a July report from Medicare's Office of the Actuary. Should that prediction prove true, it would be up from the roughly 17 percent of GDP health care spending accounted for last year.

This is nothing new; domestic health care spending has been on the rise for years. In 2008, Americans spent more than three times on health care than what they spent just 18 years before, according to a Kaiser report. Health care costs accounted for more than 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product by that time -- one of the highest rates of industrialized nations.

The rising cost of paying medical bills has hit Americans especially hard in recent years. The total number of Americans with health insurance fell in 2010 for the first time in decades, CNNMoney reports. All told, the number of Americans without health insurance rose to 49.9 million that year, according to Census Bureau data.

Comments

[harrisN]

03:24 AM on 01/25/2012

It’s a very informative blog. Health insurance is necessary for everyone on the contrary many people think that their dental needs are covered by their health insurance plans but it’s totally a wrong idea. Keep update you about a proper health insurance plans.

[CharlesMac]

08:39 AM on 01/20/2012

"Baby boomers -- those between the ages of 45 and 64"

What Baby Boomers were born in 1967 (45)???? By then, the Baby Boomers were having their own kids.

Pump your numbers much?

The birth rate spike was from 1949 to 1961.

[SitandStay]

03:06 AM on 01/20/2012

Another reason to thank the Republicans....They sure saved us from Hillary's healthcare plan, didn't they?
sarc

[dadw5boys]

10:49 PM on 01/19/2012

One way to stop this over use is to tell the Elderly Americans they do NOT have to go to Doctors Appointments if they are not sick or going for a checkup of and ON GOING condition.

Currently many of the large Medical Groups are using the Elderly like ATM's by calling them up and telling them the Doctor wants to see them and they use many excuses like he is going on vaction and wants to see you before he leaves, or your due for a check up, and others.
The appoint desk is trained to keep the FOOT TRAFFIC high as these Medical Groups are now Corporations that have to show income flows each quarter and they have taken on huge debts for xray equipment and lab even operating rooms that have to be paid for.

[SitandStay]

03:02 AM on 01/20/2012

The only two people I know that went for mammographies this past year were called and advised they must have another done because something was wrong with the first. One person was told hers was alright. The other after two biopsies on separate occassions, was told she had cancer and that she must take a particular expensive prescription, was finally told she did not have cancer. It is a drug that is being used in trials for something else and no real proof it will do anything for her. After suggesting to her the physician may be using her in a trial without her knowing, she decided not to take the prescription.
The lack of ethics in medicine in this country is mind-blowing. My step-father was a general practitioner and the profession doesn't resemble itself in anyway with the physicians today.

[dadw5boys]

08:11 AM on 01/20/2012

The American People have forgotten word have meaning.
Doctors went to Medical School to learn to prastice Medicine and provide Medical Care.
Insurance Companys teach them how to provide Healthcare.
Almost the only place you get Medical Care in the U.S. today is in the ER and that is the most expensive type of care. But the USA is number 1 in Emergency Medical Care

A friend had biopsies and was told it might be cancer but it was only a clogged milk duct in her breast. Just calling something Cancer increases the profit from that one person 900 %

[David Hundley]

06:45 PM on 01/20/2012

Today, they have P.A.C. s I don't know what that is, but it sounds like a cheap Doctor.
The Lab Corps and the other blood- sucking monsters are probably the lowest paid people, every time I go by there, the employees have changed. That's not right.

[dadw5boys]

10:43 PM on 01/19/2012

Wages up 34 % ??? What a joke !

[mwr133]

10:05 PM on 01/19/2012

Obamacare is a lie. It is economically impossible to give healthcare to more people, at lower cost, and mantain the quality of care in one fell swoop. Most doctors are opposed to this!

[Cold in Michigan]

03:09 AM on 01/20/2012

No, it is quite possible, and although I do not beleive your claim of 'most' doctors I am sure it is as split along party lines as any other issue. As a matter of fact, many doctors that do not have private practice are not even aware of the costs of the tests they order...or how the bottom line is affected. They order tests, often un-needed, because of hospital policy and to run the bill up and protect themselves against law suits.

HMO's work something like what you are afraid can never happen. Equipment is not duplicated, doctors share the same ultra sound or cat scan which keeps costs down. It will work...it will work just fine. And if you want to keep what you have now...thats fine. Your medical care will not change. But I will tell you...my 32 year old special needs daughter now has insurance for the first time in her life and I don't have to worry about getting yet another home equity to pay for her medical bills...so I think it is working just great. With more on the way.

[tmm77625]

05:15 PM on 01/19/2012

So, if the top 5% of the people account for half of the income in this country (which they do not) we hear screaming about how "unfair" that is, but if 5% of the people account for half of the health care expense, not a peep about "fairness".

[icstars]

06:09 PM on 01/19/2012

Apples and oranges.

For health care, what would the idea situation be? We're all healthy, health care costs are low, and a very small number of people need care. That means that an even SMALLER percentage of people would be responsible for a LARGER share of the actual health care expenses.

For income equality....you want the percentages to go the other way. Frankly I'm more concerned with a fairer tax code, which isn't concerned so much with gross income figures but how those earners contribute to paying our debt and budget obligations.

[tmm77625]

06:52 PM on 01/19/2012

So, you want people who earn, say, 12% of the income to be paying a greater percentage of the total tax burden, like say 19%?

[randomness1970]

04:55 PM on 01/19/2012

The inflated cost of q-tips is a product of cost shifting, they can’t charge a client what a procedure actually cost, so they make up that loss by overcharging for anther product. The way health care cost is decided has become so convoluted it’s almost impossible to figure out what costs what.

The law doesn’t allow a hospital to refuse treatment to any patient and they often can’t pay. That cost is redeemed through those with insurance while hospitals claim to write it off as a charitable loss to their bottom line. That 5% driving up costs are leveraged by all involved to justify the rising cost of health care for all.

There is room for reform but it’s not likely that will ever happen within our current system. It’s much to profitable for insurance companies and hospitals to leverage a captive audience blaming the smoker, drinker, over eater, and the list goes on to include the elderly.

When people suggest we just don’t care for those who can’t afford insurance we play perfectly into the mindset of profit makers for insurance companies. They don’t want to insure the people who actually need the insurance but instead they want to insure those who don’t need it’s how they make their money.

Those of us struggling to afford our health insurance can see this 5% to 50% ratio is a waste but insurance companies and hospitals leverage it for a profit.

[icstars]

04:54 PM on 01/19/2012

They still never explain what they mean by "disproportionately." By population?

It's self-evident, basic biology that people younger than 45 are a healthier group than those over 45.

[icstars]

04:52 PM on 01/19/2012

I got a 'comments are closed' message for a comment of mine that someone replied to just a few hours ago.

So to respond to wsdave, yes, but that's covered by more premiums---Adding more healthy people in any insurance pool is a net advantage to the provider! That's exactly what would happen if the eligibility age for Medicare were lowered--as I said, more healthy people paying premiums, lower cost per insured person.

[Ted Glass]

03:32 PM on 01/19/2012

These numbers, while only a summary view, speak to the need for either a high risk pool for the top 5%. Which would drastically lower private insurance costs because of the risk of these high spending patients taken out of the equation. OR it speaks to the argument for Universal Healthcare, which would make sure that as a whole the entire American public got the care we needed regardless of our ailments or where we fit on the risk scale.

[j319s]

04:34 PM on 01/19/2012

Good presentation

[one of the one percent]

01:42 PM on 01/19/2012

It is greed, gluttony and unregulated capitalism that supports our broken and corrupt healthcare system and it should be illegal.

It is our greedy, gluttonous and broken congress, the 1%, that legislated and supported our broken cost-cutting, mediocre healthcare system...

A system that profits off of the sick and suffering...


Our richy-rich congress members luxuriate in a premium healthcare system setup for the 1% by the 1%, because unbeknownst to the general public, our broken congress is the 1% that is legislating the demise of the 99%.



The United States of America was created 'by the people, for the people' and our nation needs campaign finance reform to get the 1% out of office and vote in people that represent the 99%.







Power to the People.

[dhkelly]

12:12 PM on 01/19/2012

the solution to the p

[dhkelly]

12:14 PM on 01/19/2012

Sorry, I did not mean to post this.

[wsdave]

11:59 AM on 01/19/2012

Looks like it's time for death panels.

[DARK STAR]

08:53 AM on 01/19/2012

End major surgery for those over 85 years old, first and foremost, as it is not necessary and ruins what quality of life remains...

[oldguru]

03:16 PM on 01/19/2012

Um, My mother lived to be 94. Sharp as a tack and mobile until 10 days before she died. She had a major surgery at 89, which saved her life. So, that was not OK with you?
How do you feel about abortion?

[sanfran55]

03:38 PM on 01/19/2012

Agreed. We can not put an age number on quality of life.

[DARK STAR]

08:39 PM on 01/19/2012

She had an abortion_at 94?

[Ted Glass]

03:25 PM on 01/19/2012

Not always true

[DARK STAR]

08:37 PM on 01/19/2012

No, not always, but mostly...