Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
How can we characterize the epidemiology and health care resource utilization of Americans with schizophrenia? This is the question a new paper in JMCP by Parks et al. (2026) aims to answer among patients enrolled in Medicaid. The authors use Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) Analytic Files from 2016 to 2022 and find that:…
The answer is provided by EFPIA’s annual WAIT indicator (press release, report). First, we see a large decrease in the share of pharmaceuticals fully availbity, drive by a small increase in reduced availability but a much larger increase in the number of drugs that only have a limited availability. Specifically, Historically full availability was the…
From a Mark et al. (2026) paper published in Health Affairs last week: …from 2000 through 2021, mental health and SUD nominal spending grew from $40.9 billion to $139.6 billion. Mental health and SUD accounted for 4.5 percent of all medical services spending in 2000 and 5.5 percent in 2021. Real per capita mental health and SUD spending grew…
It turns out the answer is Medicare Advantage plans according to a KFF analysis released today. However the reason why Medicare Advantage is more profitable may not be obvious: At the end of 2024, gross margins per enrollee ranged from $608 in the Medicaid managed care market to $1,655 in the Medicare Advantage market. Gross…
That is according to the 2024 national health expenditure data published in Health Affairs last week (Hartman et al. 2026). Here is the abstract: Health care spending in the US reached $5.3 trillion and increased 7.2 percent in 2024, similar to growth of 7.4 percent in 2023, as increased demand for health care influenced this two-year trend. As…
Perhaps at least according to Tyler Cowen. Here is an excerpt from his Conversation with Dan Wang: WANG: …health care is what, 20% of the American GDP?COWEN: 17 point something. That’s a lot, right?WANG: That’s a lot. That feels too high to me. I feel like we should be ringing better efficiencies out here.COWEN: It seems not high enough,…
Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the results from the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program for Initial Price Applicability Year (IPAY) 2027 (press release). What was the average reduction in drug prices? Across the 15 drugs included in the 2027 negotiation, on average, drug prices fell by 62% (median: 63%); accounting…
The 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey came out last week. Here are some key findings: Premium costs The average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2025 are $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage. Over the last year, the average single premium increased by 5% and the average family premium increased by…
CMS’s Office of the Actuary predicts that national healthcare expenditures (NHE) will increase from 17.6% of GDP in 2023 to 20.3% of GDP by 2033. The Keehan et al. (2025) paper provides more details: National health expenditures are projected to have grown 8.2 percent in 2024 and to increase 7.1 percent in 2025, reflecting continued…
That is according to a paper by Wolff et al. (2025). They use 2011-2022 data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) linked to data from the National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). Using these data, they find. …the numbers of family caregivers providing help to older adults increased by nearly six million between…