Why Did Medicare Spending Growth Slow Down?

C. White, Why Did Medicare Spending Growth Slow Down?, Health Affairs May/June 2008 27(3):793–802 Historical trends in Medicare spending hold key implications. First, spending growth is amendable to policy changes. Second, not all prospective payment systems work equally well, with Medicare's prospective payment system for inpatient hospitals showing greater success than its efforts with physicians. And third, increased cost-sharing is not the only remedy to curtailing spending growth. "If we acknowledge and accept that trends in Medicare spending are under our control, then we can move on to the more meaningful questions of what those trends should look like, and how public funds can be spent more beneficially," White concludes.