Healthcare Data
Smart Valley’s mission is to promote pervasive public access to information technologies in the Silicon Valley region by exploring applications that significantly improve the lives of the people who live here, and by encouraging the rapid deployment of next generation communications infrastructure.
The coordinated use of Information technology can reduce health care costs by eliminating unnecessary duplication of tests and eliminating unnecessary visits to health care providers. More importantly, creating seamless patient records can save lives and improve patient safety by providing complete patient information at the point of care. As the data on this page shows, these issues -- cost and patient safety -- must be addressed over the next decade.
Health care costs
In 2003, $1.7 trillion was spent on health care in the US, or $5, 670 per person. This number is expected to increase to $3.6 trillion in 2014.
Source: US Department of Commerce, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Health care spending in the US as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has risen steadily over the last half century, from 5.1% of GDP in 1960 to 10.1% in 1985, to its present level of 15.3%. It is estimated that the percentage will be approximately 18% in 2014. Health care costs continue to increase at a rate faster than GDP, with the largest increases occurring for hospital outpatient services and prescription drugs.
Source: US Department of Health and Human Services, CMS
Health care spending in 2003 was allocated as follows:
Hospital Care 31%
Physician and clinical services 22%
Prescription Drugs 11%
Nursing home care 7%
Program administration 7%
Other spending (dental care, professional services, home care, over-the counter medicines, public health, construction) 22%
This amount has changed significantly over time. In 1980, hospital care accounted for 40% of spending, drugs 5%, and physician services 17%.
Source: Department of HHS, Employee Research Institute estimates for CMS
The US spends substantially more for health care than other developed countries. In 1998, health care spending for selected countries was as follows:
| Health care spending as percent of GDP | Per capita health care spending (US$) | |
| United States | 13.6 |
$4,178 |
| Canada | 8.5 | $2,043 |
| United Kingdom | 6.7 | $1,461 |
| Germany | 10.6 | $2,424 |
| Japan | 7.6 | $1,822 |
| Australia | 8.5 | $2,043 |
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Health Insurance
174 million Americans, or 60.4 percent of the population, had employment-based insurance in 2003.
Source: US Department of HHS .
US private employers spent an estimated $330.9 billion on employee health insurance in 2003, an average of $3.80 per hour.
Source: Employment Policy Foundation
Premiums for employee-sponsored health insurance in the US have been rising five times faster on average than workers' earnings since 2000.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Research and Educational Trust
CEOs cite healthcare (43%) as the greatest cost pressure on their businesses, over litigation (20%) and energy (19%).
Source: Business Roundtable December 2004 CEO survey
in 2003 there were 45 million Americans without health insurance. The primary reason is that health care is too expensive.
Source: US Census Bureau, Kaiser Family Foundation
In smaller companies, 52 percent of employees do not elect family coverage because the $359 average monthly cost is deemed too expensive.
Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting
Patient safety
3.7 patients out of every 100 hospital admissions suffer an adverse event.
Source: Harvard Medical Practice Study
As many as 98,000 people die in hospitals each year as the result of medical errors.
Source: Institute of Medicine Report
A Massachusetts study estimated that as many as 2.4 million prescriptions are filled improperly each year in that state.
Source: Massachusetts Stqate Board of Registration in Pharmacy
The cost of medical errors in the US is approximate $37.6 million per year. About $17 billion of those costs are assoicated with preventable errors.
Source: Institute of Medicine Report