Nonetheless, economists and health care analysts found little cause for celebration, saying that the 1996 figures are already outdated and that health care spending is again accelerating.
All experience suggests that. . . .
The aging of the nation's population, the advent of costly new medical technologies and diminishing returns from the managed-care revolution all augur sharper spending increases in coming years, experts say. Spending on health care rose 4.4 percent in 1996, down from 4.8 percent in 1995 and 8.3 percent in 1993, when spiraling costs were making health care reform a top priority for President Clinton, the report said. The 1996 figure was the smallest increase since the government survey began in 1960. Though as recently as 1993 annual increases in health care spending sharply outpaced overall economic growth, the trend was reversed in 1996, when the gross domestic product expanded by 5.1 percent, according to the report by researchers at the Health Care Financing Administration. It appears in the current edition of the journal Health Affairs.