title: Monitoring health spending increases: incremental budget analyses reveal challenging tradeoffs.
abstract: With each passing decade, health care has consumed a larger share of gross domestic product (GDP) and Federal budgets. By the 2000-2004 period, society was willing to devote over 20 percent of the cumulative increase in GDP and the cumulative increase in Federal outlays towards health care. The financing challenges are expected to become more acute for private payers as well as Federal, State, and local budgets. With the implementation of Part D in 2006, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget projects that Federal budget pressures will heighten, bringing increased attention to Medicare's long-term fiscal outlook.
authors.affiliation: Office of the Actuary, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Baltimore, MD 21244-1850, USA. Micah.Hartman@cms.hhs.gov
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heffler
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freeland
mesh_terms: D002017:Budgets; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics*; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States