[extropy-chat] Essay on Physical Immortality - who pays? What will the cost be?

[Extropian Agroforestry Ventures Inc.]

Top Of The News
 Health Costs Rise Beyond Belief
 Dan Ackman, 01.09.04, 9:58 AM ET

                     NEW YORK - U.S. health care costs are rising so fast
                     that not only do they outstrip the prior year, they even
                     exceed forecasters' ability to project them

                     In mid-2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
                     Services projected that national health expenditures
                     would reach $2.8 trillion in 2011--an estimate based
                     on a mean annual growth rate of 7.3%. Since then,
                     the growth rate has increased significantly to
                     9.3%--to the point where health spending is already
                     at nearly 15% of GDP, according to Centers for
                     Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a unit of HHS.

                     This increase--and future projections--don't take into
                     account the potential effects of the prescription drug
                     entitlement in the Medicaid bill passed by Congress
                     last year.

                     Hospital and prescription drug spending led the
 charge, CMS said. "This continued acceleration injects pressure into the health
care
 system, and everyone--from businesses to government to consumers--is affected,"
 Katharine Levit, a CMS official and the lead author of the report published in
the
 journal Health Affairs, said at a news conference. Levit added that early
indications are
 that the rate of increase will slow "as a result of the economic slowdown.'' In
fact,
 health care spending increases slowed during the late 1990s boom, and have
 accelerated since the economy cooled.

 This tendency has led to higher insurance premiums, cutbacks in employer health
plans
 and a rise in the number of uninsured.

 Health care spending averaged $4,672 per person in 2000 and $5,035 per person in
 2001. In 2002, the U.S. spent $5,440 per person for a total of $1.55 trillion.
This is more
 per person than anywhere else. The U.S. spends 47% more per person than
 Switzerland, which ranks second, according to the Organization for Economic
 Cooperation and Development. It also spends substantially more than any other
nation
 in terms of percentage of GDP. Health care costs were 10.9% of GDP in
Switzerland,
 10.7% in Germany and 9.7% in Canada.

 Even before the 2002 figures were known, CMS was projecting that by 2011 U.S.
 health costs would rise to 17% of GDP.

 The increase in hospital spending was caused by increased usage and higher labor
 and supply costs. Hospitals, meanwhile, managed to raise prices by 5%.
Prescription
 drug spending was the fastest-rising aspect of health costs at 15.3%. Despite
this
 trend, leading drug companies like Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ), Merck
(nyse:
 MRK - news - people ) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people )
 have all seen their share prices decline over the last two years, though they
have
 rebounded lately.

 Even large and highly profitable companies like General Electric (nyse: GE - news
-
 people ) have felt the effects. Perhaps for that reason, total out-of-pocket
spending on
 health care rose by $12 billion, to $212.5 billion, and out-of-pocket spending on

 prescription drugs rose $6.1 billion, to $48.6 billion. Meanwhile, health
insurers like
 Aetna (nyse: AET - news - people ), UnitedHealth Group (nyse: UNH - news -
 people ) and WellPoint Health Networks (nyse: WLP - news - people ) have all seen

 their share prices rise by at least 50% over the last two years.

Natasha Vita-More wrote:

> >From: "Harvey Newstrom"
> >
> > > How about "ageless" as a word?  We aren't growing older toward dying of
> > > old-age.  But it implies nothing about living forever or not dying by some
> > > other means.
>
> "Ageless Thinking"  talk I presented at Alcor Technology Conference, and
> essay in my book (1996).
>
> http://www.natasha.cc/ageless.htm
>
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