Hatch on Administration Report on National Health Care Spending

Nation’s Health Care Costs Will Devour One-Fifth of GDP by the End of this Decade, According to Annual CMS Report

WASHINGTON – Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) issued its annual report on national health expenditures for 2010 that found that by 2020, once the partisan health law is fully implemented, one in five dollars of the American economy will be spent on health care, with the health share of the gross domestic product (GDP) increasing from 17.6 percent in 2009 to 19.8 percent in 2020.  This report makes clear that the increase in costs has been made worse by the new health care spending law.

"Skyrocketing health costs hit the pocketbooks of hard-working American families who are already struggling during this severe economic downturn,” said Hatch.  “The central promise of the White House’s partisan health law was that it would reduce health care costs, but unfortunately, as the report shows, this law is only making things worse.”

The report by CMS’ chief actuary found the new health law will:

• Double the size of health care entitlements to $2.3 trillion by 2020;
• Increase private health insurance premiums by 9.4 percent in 2014 (4.4 percentage points higher than without the health law);
• Increase prescription drug spending by 10.7 percent in 2014 (5.1 percent higher than without the health law);
• Increase physician and clinical services by 8.9 percent in 2014 (3.1 percent higher than without the health law); and
• Increased hospital spending by 7.2 percent in 2014 (1.0 percent higher than without the health law).

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