Per-capita spending doubled from 1997 through 2009 from $4100 to $8100 – with 5% of patients spending $35,800 on average annually to account for 47.5% of healthcare spending. Overall, the five most expensive conditions are heart disease, cancer, trauma, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions.
Unsurprisingly, people over 55 made up the majority of the high spending groups. Unhappily enough, the authors note a “flattening” of the distribution of spending, where younger individuals are responsible for a greater proportion of the spending. This is not due to more cost-effective care in the elderly, it’s a result of increasing disease prevalence in the young, primarily attribute to obesity-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia.
May you live in interesting times, indeed.
“Understanding U.S. Health Care Spending – NIHCM Foundation Data Brief July 2011”
http://www.nihcm.org/images/stories/NIHCM-CostBrief-Email.pdf