Where is health care going in the United States? Well, no big surprises: it is costing more, is on an upwards cost trend given demographics (e.g. we are getting older as a population), and it is harder to get reimbursement.

This bleak prognosis came out of Mass Medic’s December 9 symposium (see immediately prior post). Some grim highlights (lowlights?):

Health care costs in the US are 18% of gross domestic product. Pretty high. Increase in chronic diseases is one driver, headed by diabetes explosion. Our population over age 65, now just over 10%, will be 25% by 2050. Between 2007 and 2012, obtaining approval for reimbursement codes for new innovations became (statistically) twenty times more difficult, applying an “effectiveness vs value” standard.

Med device margins, being lower than in pharma, may not permit as robust an innovation culture within established manufacturers as for drugs; the percentage of gross being plowed back into innovation in devices is much lower than for pharma, even after the sea change in the approach of big pharma to drug development (e.g., let’s buy it from someone, not invent it ourselves). A contrary push, however, is coming from the public, now much more savvy about possible benefits which could be delivered. And, non-traditional companies are beginning to invade the healthcare space (think Google Health).