Health Care Costs Set To Rise: NCHC

US health care costs will rise 2-2.5 times as fast as inflation over thenext five years, according to a new study commissioned by the National Coalition on Health Care. Middle class families will pay a greater percentage of their income on health care than any other group, it was noted, while married couples with children will pay 5.5% above inflation and single-parent families as much as 10% more than inflation for their health care costs.

The slower growth in health care spending of the last two years has subsided, according to the study, conducted for the NCHC by the Tulane University Medical Center Institute for Health Service Research, and costs are now expected to rise by 6.4% annually, beginning this year, and there will be continued acceleration over the next five years.

The study projects that in 1997, the typical family will directly spend $2,000 on health care, including health care insurance, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Almost 50% of the out-of-pocket expenses are directly attributable to insurance premiums, with the costs of paying for the uninsured being shifted at a greater percentage cost onto the middle class than the affluent. Based on the study, health care now accounts for about 13.8% of the USA's Gross Domestic Product, and will rise to almost 15% by 2002.