CBO: Private Insurers Better at Expenditure Growth Control than Medicare, Medicaid

Advocates for government run health care assert that it does a better job of cost control than private insurers. Here are some data from a 2007 Congressional Budget office report on the Long-term Outlook for Health Care Spending.

On a real per capita basis, private insurers had slower spending growth than Medicaid or Medicare. The CBO says that estimates were adjusted for changes in population composition.

Advocates for government run health care assert that it does a better job of cost control than private insurers. Here are some data from a 2007 Congressional Budget office report on the Long-term Outlook for Health Care Spending.

On a real per capita basis, private insurers had slower spending growth than Medicaid or Medicare. The CBO says that estimates were adjusted for changes in population composition.

The growth in per capita Medicaid spending is symptomatic of a program in which both the states and the federal government have an incentive to spend more to get more, and cost control remains someone else’s problem.

  Source: Congressional Budget Office