More Accurate Medical Service Unit Costing Recommended to Determine How U.S. Health Spending Affects Population Health

To improve the United States' ability to identify effective health care spending, a group of health economists recommended changes to the federal government that would increase the accuracy of medical service unit costing for care provided for chronic health conditions. Although the U.S. spends 17.6% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product on health care—the federal government estimates national health care spending at $2.5 trillion for 2009—it is often difficult to determine how spending affects overall population health. The health economists' recommendations were targeted toward building a national health accounting system, with the following basic . . .