RWJF Predicts Healthcare Spending Will Drop By $2.6 Trillion By 2019

Study investigates implications of slowdown in health spending growth for the future.

According to the findings of an Urban Institute report funded by the Robert Johnson Woods Foundation, healthcare spending is anticipated to be $2.6 trillion less than projected between 2014 and 2019, when compared to initial 2010 projections. Study authors note that, despite signs of spiking health spending in 2014, the evidence suggests that spending growth has slowed once again. Researchers based their findings on health expenditure data from CMS and said they adjusted each year for the absence of the sustainable growth rate system for physician payment rates in Medicare.

The authors attributed the projected drop in national healthcare spending to the effects of the Supreme Court’s ACA decisions and sequestration in the Budget Control Act of 2011, as well as the recession and subsequent sluggish economic recovery. “There are many potential drivers of the recent slowdown in spending growth rates, and no one can be sure how MACRA may impact spending going forward,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “If this healthcare spending growth slowdown continues, spending will be trillions less before the end of the decade.” For the full article click here 

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