Does anyone know the 5 Top Cost Drivers of Health Care Expenses?

Alonso Crehan: I found a link to an article that this may have come from...amongst other things it talks about Chronic diseases...http://www.kff.org/insurance/h08_7828.cfm

Wilbur Marksberry: 1. Advertising and Marketing2. Insurance company monopoly3. Older population4. Pharmaceutical research5. Childhood obesity due to bad food

Ester Bryand: According to Kaiser, link below, the FOUR major factors are:Technology and prescription drugsChronic diseasesAging populationAdministrative CostsAccording to a Price Waterhouse report, link below, it's:General inflationHealth care price increases in excess of inflationIncreased utilizationThey do mention that prescription drug utiliziation is the largest factor of all of these.A slightly older Price Waterhouse report blames technology and pharmaceutical advancements (research); rising providerexpenses; general inflation; increased consumer demand; governmentmandates and inflation; litigation; and for fraud, abuse an! d other costs.Blaming it on advertising, monopolies (which, btw, don't exist yet in the health INSURANCE industry, until the government takes over healthcare), and fat kids, is naive, at best....Show more

Violette Vanek: Really? That is what Kaiser Foundation would like you to believe?Hmm..... I just checked out a very comprehensive study done by Massachusetts.... and guess what... their 5 main reasons for increased health care costs have nothing to do with diseases... it's all about unchecked pricing from health care providers... Here are their 5 factors.... A. Prices paid by health insurance companies to hospitals and physician groups varysignificantly within the same geographic area and amongst providers offering similarlevels of service.B. Price variations are not correlated to (1) quality of care, (2) the sickness orcomplexity of the population being served, (3) the extent to which a provider isresponsible for caring for a large portion of patients on Medicare or! Medicaid, or (4)whether a provider is an academic teaching or! research facility. Moreover, (5) pricevariations are not adequately explained by differences in hospital costs of deliveringsimilar services at similar facilities.C. Price variations are correlated to market leverage as measured by the relative marketposition of the hospital or provider group compared with other hospitals or providergroups within a geographic region or within a group of academic medical centers.D. Variation in total medical expenses on a per member per month basis is not correlatedto the methodology used to pay for health care, with total medical expensessometimes higher for globally paid providers than for providers paid on a fee-for servicebasis.E. Price increases, not increases in utilization, caused most of the increases in healthcare costs during the past few years in Massachusetts.F. The commercial health care marketplace has been distorted by contracting practicesthat reinforce and perpetuate disparities in pricing.Wouldn't you know it.... it's all ! about pricing....Show more