NHE Growth and Private Health Insurance Administrative Costs

With the release of the National Health Expenditure data, much has been made about the percentage increase in health care spending.  That got us thinking: what has been driving the increase in health spending each year over the past couple of decades?  We took a look, and the chart below (it’s interactive, just drag your mouse over the chart) of NHE data show the annual growth in NHE that was attributable to private health insurance (PHI) administrative costs from 1989-2010 (on average, 3.9% over that period). In other words, on average, 96.1% of the annual growth in health spending from 1989-2010 came from areas other than PHI administrative costs. (The raw data is shown below.)