A Rand Corp. study finds that advances in medical technology are likely to drive health care costs up fast.
"This technology is valuable because it will improve health and extend lives," said Dana Goldman, director of health economics at RAND Health. "But we need to begin thinking about how to pay for it."
For example, if implantable defibrillators are installed in half the patients with new heart failure or heart attacks, elderly health care spending would rise by $14 billion in 2015 and by $21 billion in 2030, according to researchers. The increase would amount to almost 4 percent of total spending, which is now about $300 billion a year.
Drugs that prevent Alzheimer's disease would drive costs up about 8 percent.
On the other hand, the researchers say that reducing the amount of obesity in the United States would cut health care costs or slow their growth.
A number of chronic diseases are also unlikely to do little to increase health spending because patients with those diseases tend to die younger.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
