Clinton’s Health Plan : Health Plan: A User’s Guide : The Cost of Hospital Care

Here are some of the reasons cited by health care experts for the need to change the way hospitals do business:

Skyrocketing Spending Levels

Total U.S. spending in billions

1991: $289

Per person

1991: $1,101

Occupancy Rates are Dropping

1991: 69%

Staffing Rates Have Gone Up

Staff members per bed

1991: 3.5

Hospital Fact Sheet

Number of surgeries per 1,000 people: 63 (1990)

Average cost per surgery in U.S.: $576 (1990)

Average cost per surgery in California: $754 (1990)

A Growing Slice of the Health Care Dollar

Hospital care: 38%

Doctor services: 19%

Nursing homes: 8%

Drugs and nondurables: 8%

Others: 27%

Mounting Unpaid Bills

Percentage of hospitals’ total costs going to bad debt and charity:

1981: 7%

1989: 13%

Numbers may not add up to 100% because of rounding

Growing Burden on the Federal Government

1961:

Private health insurance: 37%

Out of pocket: 21%

Federal government: 17%

State and local: 25%

Other: 1%

1991:

Private health insurance: 35%

Out of pocket: 3%

Federal government: 41%

State and local: 15%

Other: 5%

Sources: Congressional Budget Office calculations based on data from the Health Care Financing Administration, Office of the Actuary, 1992.