Interesting Healthcare Statistics

With health care cost skyrocketing, it is no wonder that it accounts for 18% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Here are some other things to consider.

• Medicare spends about $50 billion on the last 2 months of a patient's life.
• Medicare/Medicaid fraud is estimated at $70 billion per year.
• 23-30% of prescriptions never get picked up at the pharmacy according to a Surescripts study based on 40 million prescriptions from 2008-2010.
• 80% of health care bills contain errors.
• Insurance claim errors are estimated at about $17 billion per year.
• According to the Milliman Medical Index which measures the total annual cost of health care for a typical family of 4 using a Preferred Provider Plan (PPO), costs in 2002 were $9,235. In 2011, the costs were $19,393.
• By 2025, the average annual cost for family health care insurance will equal the average annual household income.

In my own case, I have watched my health care insurance premiums increase by 25% in less than 2 years.