9.15.20
Healthcare expenditures in the US represent nearly 18% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Many take issue with the level of healthcare spending in this country based on comparisons to other countries. 在美国, healthcare is the second-largest component of the federal budget behind Social Security, 占2020财年的近30%, and government sources fund 51% of all national healthcare expenditures. 进一步, the healthcare share of the federal budget is projected to increase significantly as the last wave of baby boomers enroll in Medicare.
One could also take the position that this level of spending is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. 医疗保健行业是一个经济支柱. 除了提供明显的社会效益, 医院, 云顶集团40011官网, 其他临床云顶集团为1美元.2018年支出92万亿美元.占国家卫生支出的5%.GDP的3%. Retail sales of medical products, including prescription medications, represent another $456.30亿,12亿.占国家卫生支出的5%. In many communities, 医院 and health systems are among the largest 雇主. 云顶集团40011官网, 其他医疗云顶集团提供者, and their employees across the continuum make up a significant part of every community’s workforce. 该行业增加了2个.8 million jobs between 2006 and 2016, the most of any industry. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects another 18% growth in health sector jobs between 2016 and 2026, and growth in national health expenditures is expected to continue to slightly outpace the general economy, 达到19.到2028年占GDP的7%. That represents a 54% increase in spending over 2018 levels.
Can we reduce healthcare spending to the levels of other industrialized nations? Not with our current model of care delivery and funding. Such a goal would require draconian measures that would entail slashing reimbursements, 削减工资和人员编制, 配给云顶集团, and a host of other means that would disrupt almost every aspect of how we access, 提供, and pay for care—never mind the impact on the economy overall if the healthcare spending equivalent of even three to four percentage points were to disappear from the GDP. There are also cultural differences that impact the types of healthcare services available in the US versus other countries and how they are utilized. Even the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 编制国家比较的实体, acknowledges that data inconsistency and availability between countries may impact the comparisons. Where there seems to be clarity is that base 提供r costs—labor, 药品, 医疗设备, 而美国的供应则更高. The literature has many examples of authors supporting either side of this debate.
政治家和政策制定者, 云顶集团40011官网和支付方, 雇主, and consumers all have a vested interest in controlling the rate of spend in healthcare, 或者至少提高我们所花的钱的价值. There is little disagreement that the US healthcare system has significant amounts of inefficiency and waste in clinical care delivery and high administrative costs attributable to both regulatory burden and our private insurance model. Various studies estimate the total annual cost of waste ranges from $760 billion to $935 billion.12 .质量的一些衡量标准, 和生活质量, consistently fall below levels that we would aspire to achieve, and the US chronic disease burden and obesity rate being substantially higher than the rest of the world certainly affects health outcomes. Our underlying costs for a highly trained and credentialed clinical workforce that is in short supply and other key cost elements, 比如药品, are higher than those of our counterparts in other areas of the world. 我们的基础设施是资产密集型的, 昂贵的, and aging more rapidly than it can be replenished in many parts of the country. The industry has been a slow adopter of information technology (IT) and lags in the use of technology generally to drive innovations in access and care management.
当然, the preceding discussion does not reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting US government infusion of trillions of stimulus dollars. The healthcare sector itself has been particularly hard hit, as the COVID-19 crisis has shone a bright light on the fragility of the 提供r economic model and its dependency on elective procedures, 诊断, and admissions via the emergency department that have historically kept 医院 afloat with sufficient volumes to spread fixed costs. At the center of that bright light is a flawed reimbursement model. There will be no “post-COVID-19” return to business as usual, 由于大流行使经济陷入困境, and most 提供rs realize their business model will likely be forever changed.
As the nation grapples with its recovery from the coronavirus crisis and how to pay for the associated stimulus costs, healthcare spending and the entirety of the nation’s public health and healthcare infrastructure will be in the spotlight. 有些人可能会说,医疗保健“太大而不能倒”.” That may be true, but it isn’t too big to undergo transformative change.
Understand what is needed to thrive in healthcare’s new era
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