New Healthcare Index Reveals Sharp Increase in Patient Costs

During the last year, a compelling narrative has emerged about healthcare spending: Though it continues to rise each year, its rate of growth is slowing dramatically and unexpectedly. Projections show that this trend will continue during the coming decade, partially because the impact of the Great Recession has lingered.

Affordable Care Act

It is unclear at this time what role President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, the , played in the slowdown. Looking at various aspects of health spending will, however, help determine what factors can alleviate healthcare costs, which still grow at a faster rate than the rest of the economy and threaten the financial sustainability of government-sponsored health plans. To analyze health care’s changing role on the US economy, US News has created a new annual Health Care Index, which examines trends in specific health areas from 2000 to 2013.

“As health care enters an unprecedented change in the way people are covered, how care is paid for and how it’s delivered, we want to better understand how it affects things like jobs and people’s economic well-being,” says Brian Kelly, editor and chief content editor at US News & World Report.

Read more at US New: http://bit.ly/1zGX1S6