BRIEF—US medicine spending grew just 1.3% in 2016
13 December 2017
New data from the National Health Expenditures (NHE) shows that retail medicine spending in the USA grew just 1.3% in2016, down from 9% in 2015, according to a posting on the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA),
To put that in context, total spending for hospitals grew more than 3.5 times that amount. This data, recently published in Health Affairs, reaffirms how the nation’s competitive marketplace for medicines controls costs while supporting the development of new treatments and cures.
Other key data points include:
- Total patient out-of-pocket spending grew 3.9% in 2016 — the fastest in a decade.
- Total spending for hospitals grew 4.7%, to $49 billion in 2016.
- Total spending for physician and clinical services grew 5.4%, to $664.9 billion.
- All major payers (Medicare, Medicaid and commercial health plans) experienced slower retail medicine spending growth in 2016.
- In seven of the last 10 years, NHE data shows that retail medicine spending growth has been below total health spending growth.
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