With spending on health care increasing by almost 10% in 2020, health care’s share of the economy grew to almost 20%. A breakdown of where the spending increased and where it didn’t increase is interesting. (1)
“With the expansion of government programs, uninsurance fell in the U.S. slightly (1.9%), despite a big increase in unemployment in the early months of the pandemic” (1)
The increase in health care spending came from the federal government, which increase spending by 36%. Other sources of health care spending decreased:
- Individual out-of-pocket spending decreased by 3.7% for the year. This was probably due to the decline in preventive and elective services and the associated copayments and deductibles.
- State and local health care spending decreased by 3.1%
- Private health insurances spending decreased by 1.2%
In California, under the federal government’s American Rescue Plan, employee’s who were out of work for as little as one week, were eligible for the Covered California (Affordable Care Act) silver-94 plan for only $1 per month. (2) Kevin Knauss, an insurance agent in Granite Bay, says, “so now they’re running around getting all kinds of tests and procedures done before the end of the year,”. The additional federal tax credits are slated to expire at the end of 2022. (2)