Health care costs are becoming too expensive both for governments and for patients. In Britain in 1995, the National Health Service accounted for 15% of government spending and 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to £670 per capita.
In Germany in 1996, workers were spending 14.5% of their gross wages on health insurance. National spending on hospitalizations rose 36%, and spending on doctors and dentists 29% between 1991 and 1995. The government intends to allow insurers more flexibility in determining premiums and what they will cover in an effort to reduce costs.
However health costs continued to grow annually. For instance, spending grew 5.7% in 1999 and by 6.9% in 2000. Also, the [rate] of increase from 1999 to 2000, 1.2%, was the largest positive change in the growth rate since 1993. In 2000, for the first time in almost a decade, health expenditures outpaced the growth of the economy (6.9% compared with a GDP of 6.5%). domestic This was the third year of accelerating growth in health spending. 24% of the increase in private and public health spending for 2000 was for hospitals. Prescription drug spending accounted for 9.4% of the increase. But the cost of drugs rose by 17.3% in 2000, the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
2. The payment for medical care for individuals is increasingly excessive, especially when the high costs of some operations may outweigh the benefits when the chances of prolonging life are small. Such resources may be more effectively spent of primary health care for many rather than on expensive operations for the few.