Altarum Report: Healthcare Spending Accelerates Between May 23 and May 24

From May 2023 to May 2024, the overall healthcare costs accelerated (increased) by 3.4%, marking the most rapid increase since December 2007, as reported in Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released yesterday. The report is available here: Altarum-June-2024-HSEI-Combined Expenditures on nursing home care increased by 4.8% year-over-year, while home healthcare spending saw a … Read more

Wednesday Feature: Econ Rollercoaster

Happy Hump Day! This will drop before the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee announces its decision on interest rates today. Prediction: Rates will remain unchanged. The Fed will be a bit hawkish however, about rate policy reminding everyone that they are poised, if necessary, to hike rates to fight inflation. Thus, the title for today … Read more

Friday Feature: Healthcare Economics Update

TGIF! A report I get and enjoy comes from Altarum (a non-profit consulting organization) looking at various economic data elements with regard to healthcare spending across a number of metrics (percent of GDP, time series growth, etc.). Granted, the report is a bit “wonky” but given what I do for a living, “wonky” is kind … Read more

Politics and Health Policy

Last week, the 2024 Presidential campaign season kicked into full swing with the first candidate debate. Arguably, momentum has been building ahead of the debate, especially in Iowa, during the State Fair, where candidates roamed, gave speeches, and pressed the flesh. I was there one day and enjoyed seeing Tim Scott and few other notables, … Read more

Friday Feature: GDP Report

Yesterday, the second quarter GDP report (economic activity) was released. This is the initial print from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. It will see two more prints but the initial one is always the headline story. Revisions of late, tend to be down versus up (improvement). I eschew the headlines for the details as the … Read more