Pressure mounts to cut US spending on health care

doi:10.1136/bmj.39476.361563.4E

BMJ 2008;336:236-237 (2 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39476.361563.4E

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Pressure mounts to cut US spending on health care

Bob Roehr

¹ Washington, DC

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Growth in spending on health care will determine the futureeconomic policy of the US government, a financial adviser tothe government has predicted.

Spending on health care is rising in the United States: thecurrent cost of 16% of the gross domestic product is projectedto reach 20% by 2016.

"In order to avoid an explosion of government debt, you haveto cut spending by a third or raise revenue by a third, or somecombination thereof," Peter Orszag told a Capitol Hill briefingthis week. Dr Orszag is the director of the Congressional BudgetOffice, which provides analysis of existing programmes and proposedlegislation for Congress.

It would be possible to save $1500bn (£800bn; ${euro}$ 1000bn)over the next 10 years by implementing a series of changes,said Cathy Schoen, coauthor of a report on healthcare reformfrom the charity the Commonwealth Fund. The report, releasedin December, offered . . . [Full text of this article]