The consulting firm Deloitte just reported on a new study called “The Hidden Costs of U.S. Health Care for Consumers: A Comprehensive Analysis.” (http://bit.ly/gni89u) It’s not a pretty picture. In fact, it details how much more we’re actually spending on out-of-pocket health care costs when you factor in alternative health treatments, nutritional products, care giving, and other types of goods and services we use to maintain our health. One of the best ways to combat the increased burden of taking care of your health and your family’s is to find innovative ways to lesson the costs, such as e-health solutions, generic drugs, discount cards, shopping for affordable facilities and so on. In other words, become as knowledgeable about costs and care as you can, and then take action.

Here are some of the study’s highlights:

* Total U.S. health care expenditures in 2009 were an estimated $2.83 trillion –a 26 percent increase from $2.25 trillion in 2005.
* U.S. health care spending is dominated by big ticket, “necessary expenditure” items of hospital care ($760 billion, or 27 percent of total expenditures), professional care ($832 billion, or 29 percent), and prescription drugs ($246.3 billion, or 9 percent).
* Total discretionary costs for health care (direct and indirect) totaled $1,892 per capita in 2009.
* Over half of the additional costs for health goods or services identified additional to the NHEA (55 percent) were in one key area: the imputed value of providing supervisory care to another. Almost all supervisory care was provided to people living in families with lower incomes.
* Individuals living in families earning less than $10,000 per year accounted for 11 percent of all health care costs in 2009. The shares for families earning $10,000-$25,000, $25,000-$50,000, and $50,000-$100,000 were 21 percent, 25 percent, and 26 percent, respectively.
* One-person family units comprised 24 percent of total health care expenditures, with two-person families accounting for 37 percent.
* Health care costs for people 65+ made up 36 percent of the total ($1.01 trillion). Senior health care use concentrates on hospitals, long-term care, supervisory care, and physicians/clinical services.

Did you spend more on health care last year than in previous years?

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