The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Dear John,
The latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report illustrates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on national health care spending in 2020.
National Health Care Spending In 2020
In an article published ahead-of-print today, Micah Hartman and colleagues from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report on national health care spending in
2020. This is the first of the annual national spending reports to reflect the impacts of the current pandemic.
The unprecedented government response to COVID-19 in 2020 resulted in a substantial increase in national health expenditures, with US health care spending increasing 9.7 percent to reach $4.1 trillion in 2020. This is significantly greater than the 4.3 percent growth rate in 2019.
“The
acceleration in 2020 was due to a 36.0 percent increase in federal expenditures for health care that occurred largely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” write Hartman and colleagues. "Growth was driven mainly by spending for the Provider Relief Fund and Paycheck Protection Program loans, increased spending for federal public health activity, and growth in the federal portion of Medicaid payments."
Today in Health Affairs Forefront, Vikki Wachino and coauthors call for urgent action in response to the mental health state of emergency that US children and adolescents are facing.
If you missed it yesterday, check out Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil’s article introducing readers to Health Affairs Forefront, the rebranded Health Affairs Blog.
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