
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

NATION'S HEALTH-CARE SPENDING JUMPS

National spending on health care moved sharply upward in 1988, reaching $539.9 billion, a record 11.1 percent of the U.S. gross national product, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan announced Thursday.

"The trends shown in this report are not cause for celebration," Sullivan said. "Health expenditures have been growing faster than the national economy for many years. This growth will strain the ability of the American people to pay for quality health care."

For more than a generation, health spending has been increasing far faster than the general cost of living. Thursday's report shows that total health spending by all public and private sources, already the highest of any developed country as a proportion of national income, continues to grow rapidly, Sullivan said.

Health spending constituted 5.3 percent of gross national product in 1960 and rose to its new record despite widespread efforts by the government and private insurers to restrain burgeoning costs, the report showed. By contrast, defense outlays in 1988 were 6.1 percent of GNP.

The 1988 health outlays amounted to $2,124 per person, 10.4 percent more than in 1987.

Control of health costs is considered by many experts to be the No. 1 health problem in the United States. Such costs are expected to bankrupt Medicare by the year 2003, and businesses and individuals are facing steeply rising premiums for health insurance. Many businesses are cutting back health insurance for their workers or forcing them to pay a larger share of the costs.

by CNB