By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-22 10:24:43 | Word Count: 445
Michigan residents and health insurers spend less on health care than the national average, according to a report released today by the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation in Ann Arbor.
The center found that in public sectors, such as Medicaid and Medicare, and the private sector, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, as well as patient out-of-pocket costs, Michigan spent $5,058 per person on health care, compared to the national average of $5,283 per person, according to 2004 data, the most recent available.
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The nonprofit agency, which was created by the University of Michigan Health System and Blue Cross Blue Shield, funded the report. The report also found that Michigan's health care spending has been growing at a slower pace than the national average since 1992. Since that year, Michigan's annual rate of increase in personal health care spending has been 5.8 percent, while the national average rate of increase has been 6.7 percent.
One reason for that is Medicaid payments in the state are lower, meaning doctors and hospitals in Michigan get paid less from Medicaid than those in other states. That's due to Michigan's budget policies, said Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. Another reason is that Michigan does a better job containing costs for health care because local private health insurers and medical professionals have taken innovative approaches to improving health care quality, she said.
"Relative to other states, a lot of the creative ideas we have (to keep health care costs down) are paying off," Udow-Phillips said, noting the high number of privately insured Michigan residents.
Private insurers in Michigan accounted for 46 percent of the health care spending, compared to 40 percent of spending by private insurers nationwide.
Michigan is taking a proactive stance on the issues of health care costs, said Anthony Colarossi, a health care consultant and partner at the Southfield-based Plante & Moran. Close relations between health insurers and experts at local universities who analyze the industry are lowering the cost of health care in the state.
"We're attentive to issues of uncontrolled growth in health care expenditures," he said. "We're doing better than other states because we have a rich and robust group of academics and large health care systems to address health care."
