Report: Health spending for those under age 65 growing fastest

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported yesterday that health care spending for people under 65 is growing faster than for those over that age. (Source: "Elderly health costs growing slowly," Associated Press, November 6, 2007.)  While "per person spending is higher for older people than younger ones ... it has not been growing as fast as costs for working-age people," CMS reported in a paper in the journal Health Affairs. The report is available here.

According to the Associated Press article:

• Per person health spending from all sources in 2004 was $5,276, up from $1,796 in 1987. For people 18 and under spending was $2,650, up from $868.
• The increase for working-age people, 19 to 64, was from $1,521 to $4,511. For people aged 65 and over it went from $5,282 to $14,797.
• Of the $5,276 spent per individual on health care in 2004, $802 was out-of-pocket, $1,898 came from private health insurance, $221 came from other private sources such as workplace clinics, $1,032 was from Medicare, $918 from Medicaid and $405 from other public sources such as state and local agencies.
• For people aged 65 and over the breakdown was $2,205 out-of-pocket, $2,351 private insurance, $331 other private, $7,242 Medicare, $2,034 Medicated and $633 other public source.