On Monday, the latest study published in Health Affairs on what we're spending on our health found that health-care spending in America actually slowed -- growing in 2007 at its lowest rate in a decade. Good news.
OK, so we still are spending more on health than the other areas of the slowing economy, and health spending consumed a larger portion of the gross domestic product in 2007 than ever before, reaching 16.2 percent.
Still, sort of good news.
But on Tuesday, we discover in yet another study, that despite the spending slowdown, we are actually paying more out of our own pockets for healthcare than ever before.
So much for good news.
It’s no surprise that with higher deductibles, higher co-pays and skimpier coverage plans average annual out-of-pocket spending rose nearly 40 percent in the decade since 1996. The study says most of us in 2005 paid an average of $741 a year out of our pocket for those things not covered by insurance.
Even more concerning is that hit to our wallets is being attributed in large part to a rise in chronic illness for -- wait for it -- baby boomers. That means the largest segment of our population is getting sicker, with nearly one out of four boomers (those age 45 to 64) having three or more chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure.
And in this economy, with never-ending layoffs and the resulting lack of employer-paid health insurance, it’s the boomers – not just the elderly – who likely will be in greatest need of coverage.
Or as the study’s authors’ put it: “This age group is increasingly developing chronic conditions while becoming more likely to be uninsured. The nonelderly uninsured frequently fail to get needed medical care and drugs for chronic health conditions because of cost.”
That means, my fellow boomers, health reform isn’t just for your parents, or the poor or someone else. It’s for us.
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