Tracking Health Care Costs: A Slowing Down of the Rate of Increase

Publication Date: January 1997

Publisher: Center for Studying Health System Change

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

Type: Brief

Abstract:

Throughout the 1990s there has been a dramatic slowing of health care cost increases. Virtually all studies show a substantial decline even after adjusting for general inflation, which dropped from 4.3 percent in 1990 to 2.5 percent in 1995. The pressures to contain health care costs are so intense that the low rates of increase could continue for some time. Consumers may not perceive this change, however, perhaps because of cost-shifting to them. This Issue Brief tracks changes in health care costs over time. The Center for Studying Health System Change plans to track these changes periodically.