Health Care And The Federal Budget, US - The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 23 Jul 2009 - 1:00 PDT


The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released "Health Care and the Federal Budget," documenting the alarming state of the U.S. health care system with a special focus on the role of health care in the federal budget.

With national health spending totaling around $2.5 trillion in 2009, and projected to grow to $4.4 trillion by 2018, there is obvious cause for concern that health care spending is out of control. This is especially true given that over a third of health care spending comes from the federal government (outside of the tax system), and these costs are driving the country toward fiscal disaster.

With over fifteen percent of the population uninsured, a major goal of health care reform has been to expand insurance coverage; this could greatly increase government spending on health care. Measures to achieve this must be accompanied by offsetting tax and spending changes as well as credible efforts to control costs.

The federal budget already faces serious structural deficits that stem from government promises outweighing revenues. Adding health care spending into this mix, without a proportional and broad based commitment to pay the taxes necessary to finance new spending, would cause the budget outlook to deteriorate even further.

More importantly, unless key changes are made in health care delivery and payment systems, costs will continue to rise rapidly and quickly reach untenable levels. Absent significant cost controls, Medicare and Medicaid will double as a percent of GDP by 2035, and consume as much as we typically raise in total revenue by 2080. That type of growth will place serious constraints on the economy's ability to meet alternative needs of the population and make it that much more difficult to improve overall standards of living.

Source
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

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