Even though voters care a lot about drug prices, they’re NOT the main reason the U.S. spends so much on health care. The primary culprits are the twice as much per person spent on hospital and physician payments than comparable wealthy nations. And yet, according to a new Peterson-Kaiser Tracker analysis, the U.S. has worse health…
Employers and private insurers paid hospitals, on average, 247% of what Medicare paid for the same services in 2018, per a new RAND study. This study used data from 49 states and the District of Columbia. The sample includes data from 3,112 hospitals. Over the 2016 to 2018 period, the claims data used for this study…
The latest Medicare projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt Medicare’s financial outlook, and foreshadow the tough choices facing the next President and Congress. According to CBO’s estimates, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will have insufficient funds to cover all benefit costs beginning in 2024…
The number of Americans who worry about bankruptcy if they have a serious health issue has spiked over the last year and a half — particularly among men, people of color and young adults, according to a new survey from West Health and Gallup. Concerns about medical bankruptcy have increased 12 and 9 percentage points,…
