ABSTRACT
Courtney J. Kronenthal, Susan K. Delaney, Erynn S. Gordon, Tara J. Schmidlen, Joseph P. Jarvis, Neda Gharani, Dorit S. Berlin, Rachel S. Kasper, Norman P. Gerry, Scott Megill, and Michael F. Christman The Coriell Institute for Medical Research, 403 Haddon Avenue, Camden, NJ 08103, USA ckronenthal@coriell.org
Uncontrolled growth in health care spending threatens to crowd
out other elements of a healthy economy. In 2010, total national
health expenditures (the sum of public and private health spending)
per capita in the United States were $8,402. The total cost that
year was $2.6 trillion, representing 18% of the US gross domestic
product (GDP) and the single-largest share of the economy. This
is a startling increase from 5% in 1960; by 2020, national health
spending is expected to reach $4.6 trillion and comprise 19.8%
of the GDP [1]. One major reason health care consumes an ever-
increasing share of US economic activity is that the current system
was designed to treat disease rather than prevent it. In general there
is little incentive for insurers to encourage and reward preventative
measures, and health care providers are paid for the quantity of the
care they provide rather than its quality [2]. Furthermore, European
health care spending, while lower than in the United States, is also
increasing. According to the World Bank, health care expenditures
in the European Union are predicted to jump from 8% of the GDP in
2000 to 14% by 2030 [3].
