Of the $101 billion increase in insurance spending, plan administration costs and profits accounted for $21.3 billion, while spending on physician and clinical services was responsible for a $20.6 billion. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The $101 billion increase in private health insurance spending between 2016 and 2018 is being driven by hospital spending, to the tune of some $43 billion—representing the chief source of the escalation.
That's according to an economic analysis released by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease about the sources of higher health care spending—and while the others are nothing to sneeze at, the analysis finds that hospitals are the chief driver.
What Accounts for the Growth in Private Health Insurance Spending? by Kenneth E. Thorpe, Ph.D., PFCD chairman and Robert W. Woodruff professor and chair of health policy and management at Emory University, also finds that during the same period, insurance plan administration costs and profits accounted for $21.3 billion, while spending on physician and clinical services was responsible for a $20.6 billion increase. Prescription drugs accounted for $3.6 billion of the increase.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
