Over the past century, the budget controller has seen an increase in budget allocations for spending in the provision of healthcare services to the public. This increase in budget allocations towards health does not only impact the total budget framework of a country but also affects a countries fiscal policies and its GDP (Thorpe et al., 2015). Even though there have been public debates to address the issue of the ever increasing healthcare spending by governments and states, not much has been achieved towards solving this problem.
One reason that can be attributed to the ever-increasing healthcare spending is the increase in chronic illnesses like cancer and diabetes. These illnesses prove too expensive to treat. For instance, the cost of diabetes medication in America was responsible for a whopping 44.4 billion dollars of the total 64.4 billion dollars documented as the cost of treating diabetes (Thorpe et al., 2015). The growing and aging population is the other reason healthcare spending is steadily rising as this population is always constantly seeking for healthcare services making it a costlier venture. Rising health insurance premiums is also among the concerns of rising healthcare costs with insurance companies demanding higher annual premiums payable in order for one to secure a health cover. This saw an increase in the average annual premium costs for both family health care covers and the private health care plans increase by more than 5% (Dieleman et al., 2017). Finally, other factors like increased ambulatory costs, higher out of pocket costs, and lack of transparency in the healthcare sector about the correct and actual value of health care are also significantly contributing to the higher healthcare costs being experienced today.
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To conclude, the factors mentioned above are in part responsible for the increased healthcare spending though no specific reason exists in a vacuum. Thus, none can be said to be solely responsible for increasing healthcare spending (Dieleman et al., 2017). Therefore, a lot needs to be done to put in check these rising healthcare spending, including embracing medical technology to remove inefficiencies to lower costs. Additionally, the education of change in lifestyle must be pursued for people to maintain healthy living habits and to avail themselves for medical checkups regularly.
References
Dieleman, J. L., Squires, E., Bui, A. L., Campbell, M., Chapin, A., Hamavid, H., ... & Sadat, N. (2017). Factors associated with increases in US health care spending, 1996-2013. Jama, 318(17), 1668-1678.
Thorpe, K. E., Allen, L., & Joski, P. (2015). The role of chronic disease, obesity, and improved treatment and detection in accounting for the rise in healthcare spending between 1987 and 2011. Applied health economics and health policy, 13(4), 381-387.
