Last week, the econowonks at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2016 National Health Expenditure (NHE) data. Links below.
It’s politically fashionable to blame healthcare spending growth on pharmaceuticals, but it’s also inaccurate. For 2016, growth in drug spending was a mere 1.3%—significantly below the growth rate of overall national healthcare spending.
Another fun fact: drug spending has grown more slowly than NHE in seven of the past ten years. Yes, really.
Our analysis also shows that spending on hospital care and healthcare professionals continues to expand much more quickly than drug spending. For 2016, those categories accounted for six times the spending on drugs dispensed from retail, mail, long-term care, and specialty pharmacies.
These new CMS data confirm the slowdown that I have highlighted in multiple Drug Channels articles. Once again, I must be the bearer of non-fake news. Read on for the details.
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