New Health Affairs study shows increase in US Medicare spending linked to rising rates of chronic disease

Two of the USA's leading health and fiscal policy experts this week discussed how to reign in rising health care costs in Medicare in light of a new Health Affairs study that shows rising Medicare costs in the nation's health care system are linked to the growth in several common costly chronic conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, and kidney disease.

Ken Thorpe, Executive Director, Emory University's Center for Entitlement Reform; Chairman, Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; and Executive Director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, joined David Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G Peterson Foundation and former Comptroller General of the USA, to talk about the findings of the study, which he co-authored, and offer a perspective on solutions to this impending fiscal crisis.

Need to control Medicare spending

"Projected growth in Medicare spending is the single largest factor behind projections of unsustainably high deficits - and people are rightly asking: 'What can we do about it?'" said Dr Thorpe. "This study shows that in order to control Medicare spending, we must arrest the growth in chronic illnesses and related issues such as obesity. By doing so, we can do better for seniors as well as America," he added.