No slowdown in sight

Rising health care costs are putting increasing pressure on not only lower-income Americans but on the middle class as well.

The Patriot Ledger

Nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured. This country spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, but many of those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

Health spending is expected to continue increasing faster than inflation. More employers are passing on the added costs to their employees. One result: Some workers drop out on the insurance, saying they can't afford it. And some employers are simply dropping all coverage.

Experts agree that this vast health care system contains inefficiencies - too much paperwork and administrative expenses - that lead to inflated prices and waste. The problems increase the cost of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers alike.

• The United States spends 16 percent of its gross domestic product on all its health care costs.
• Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.
• Health care spending continues to rise at the fastest rate in our history, according to the National Coalition on Health Care.

Tracking the increase

In 2007, total national health expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent - two times the rate of inflation. Total health-care spending was $2.3 trillion - or $7,600 per person.

Health care spending is expected to reach $4.2 trillion in 2016 - 20 percent of the total value of goods and services produced in the United States.

Some delay medical care

In recent polling, one in four Americans say their family has had a problem paying for medical care during the past year, up 7 percentage points over the past nine years. Nearly 30 percent say someone in their family has delayed medical care in the past year, a new high.

Most of those delaying seeing a doctor or getting treatment say the medical condition was at least somewhat serious. Local hospitals say elective surgery is one type of care that’s apt to be postponed or refused.

Prescription drugs

Food and gasoline aren't the only prices going up. Prices of 220 brand name prescription drugs most commonly used by people in Medicare Part D have surged since the drug benefit was implemented in 2006, according to AARP.

In its Watchdog Report, AARP found that prices of brand name drugs most commonly used by people in Medicare rose by an average of 7.4 percent in 2007 - nearly 2½ times the rate of general inflation.

Help is available

MassMedLine, a free service from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences helps people with medication questions. The service handles questions about financial assistance, drug information and general calls (such as brochure requests). The financial assistance calls represents close to 90 percent of the calls.

AARP advises that the newest or most expensive medicines are not always the best or the only ones you can take. Research shows that sometimes older, less expensive medicines work just as well as medicines advertised in magazines and on television.

AARP has a consumer guide at aarp.org/health/rx_drugs/ costs/consumerguide.