Study Links Rise in Health Care Costs to Job Losses

Business Week ^ | July 23, 2009 | Cathy Arnst

[Alter Kaker]

In a first-of-its-kind study, the non-profit Rand Corp linked the rapid growth in U.S. health care costs to job losses and lower output. The study, published online by the journal Health Services Research, gives weight to President Barack Obama’s dire warnings about the impact of rising costs if Congress does not enact health care reform.

The rate of growth in U.S. health care costs has outpaced the growth rate in the gross domestic product (GDP) for many years. In 1940, the share of GDP accounted for by health care spending was just 4.5%. By 1990, it had reached 12.2%, and 16% in 2005, when health care spending totaled nearly $2 trillion, or $6,697 per person, far more than any other nation. This year health care spending is on track to equal 18% of GDP.

The Rand researchers examined the economic performance of 38 industries from 1987 through 2005, in an attempt to assess the economic impact of “excess” growth in health care costs on U.S. industries. Excess growth is defined as the increase in health care costs that exceeds the overall growth of the nation’s GDP—a yearly occurrence in the U.S. The team compared changes in employment, economic output and the value added to the GDP product for industries that provide health benefits to most workers to those where few workers have job-based health insurance.

After adjusting for other factors, industries that provide insurance had significantly less employment growth than industries where health benefits were not common. Industries with a larger percentage of workers receiving employer-sponsored health insurance also showed lower growth in their contribution to the GDP.

[NMEwithin]

How convenient...

[the invisib1e hand]

there’s gonna be enough spin put on this to take that tilt out of the earth’s axis.

[the long march]

Rand Corporation—— noted left wing think tank

[Always Right]

So according to this liberal think tank, it has nothing to do with the real estate melt down and resulting financial crisis.

[kabar]

Corporate interests want to get out of the healthcare business. They have no problem shifting it over to the government in the name of competitiveness.

[Carry_Okie]

The rate of growth in U.S. health care costs has outpaced the growth rate in the gross domestic product (GDP) for many years.

As if it has nothing to do with an aging demographic and advancing medical technology. As an acquaintance of mine (a doctor) says, "Curing heart disease means we all get cancer."

[Marty62]

I don’t believe ANY study that has a HIDDEN AGENDA

..................

“RAND Health originated in the 1960s, when policymakers were engaged in a vigorous debate about how health care should be financed. To provide a factual basis for the debate, in 1971 the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) funded the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, a 15-year, multimillion-dollar effort that to this day remains the largest health policy study in U.S. history. The study’s conclusions encouraged the restructuring of private insurance and helped increase the stature of managed care”

[Rick_Michael]

I would love to see a study around why prices are rising. I would assume that a bulk of it has to do with mandates and America’s decline in health. Much of this having to do with the subsidizing of sugary like products....

[mainerforglobalwarming]

My question for Mr. Obama is once the government is running health care, will there be a cap on lawsuit damages awarded. I think not. I think there will be loopholes in the socialized medicine plan that will allow folks to sue the government. Which means that the amount of money in these frivolous lawsuits will be astronomical, considering that the American taxpayer is picking up the tab.

[Alter Kaker]

Rand is a left-wing think tank? What makes you say that? Condi Rice, Scooter Libby, Henry Kissinger, and Don Rumsfeld all used to work there.

[MarMema]

So according to this liberal think tank, it has nothing to do with the real estate melt down and resulting financial crisis.

Thank you. That was all just a blip on the map.

[the long march]

Look at their history and the reports they have published. Daniel Ellsworth comes to mind

[dan1123]

So according to this liberal think tank, it has nothing to do with the real estate melt down and resulting financial crisis.

Or the highest corporate tax-rate in the industrialized world, or the massive flood of illegal immigrants depressing wages and sucking the public coffers dry, or the ever-increasing, crushing environmental and occupational regulations that businesses have to contend with.

It's all about healthcare, and conveniently, there is a socialist "solution" to that problem, unlike any of the others listed.

[MSSC6644]

Why doesn’t somebody tell these jerks that medical care became VERY expensive once the Federal government got involved. That is the primary cause of the high cost of health care. The more government, the higher the cost. Why is that such a difficult concept? All one need do is look at history. We don’t have a health care crisis. We have a cost for health care crisis. Blame the government!

[socialismisinsidious]

Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

**This is a high volume ping list! (sign of the times)**