Analysis of Available Data - Essay Example

            Hospitals are the most commonly used portion of the health care system and accounted for almost forty percent of national health care expenditures as of 2008 (Shi & Singh, 2009). These costs were also significantly greater than all other health care systems. Another perspective of the available data shows that hospitals have consistently been the major source of debt within the health care system for at least the past fifty years. However, the same figure shows that the total contribution of hospital costs to system expenses has reached a fifty-year low after peaking in the 1980s. The sources of funding for hospital costs are varied, but government services (mostly federal) supply more than half of all payments, while private insurance programs provide coverage for an additional thirty-seven percent of associated costs. Only slightly more than three percent of all health care expenditures come from the patient (not including premiums and similar out-of-pocket costs). This indicates that hospitals will continue to be an important part of health care, especially due to the wide coverage of associated services

            Physician services are the second-most contributor to national health care expenditures, accounting for up to a quarter of the total. This number has increased steadily for the past thirty years. Private insurance pays for almost exactly half of these costs, with the federal government being responsible for a fourth. Over ten percent of costs are out of pocket, indicating a barrier to adequate physician services for many members of the population (Doubeni et al., 2010).