3 Reasons Why Health-Care Costs Are Likely to Rise

Opinions rage about whether health insurance costs will rise or fall with implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. What gets relatively little attention, though, is that overall healthcare cost growth has actually slowed down over the last few years. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, national healthcare spending grew 3.9% annually from 2009 to 2011 -- the lowest rate since the government began tracking the statistics over 50 years ago.

Don't get used to slower healthcare cost growth, though. There are several reasons why higher spending could soon rear its head again. Here are three that could drive healthcare costs up in the near future.

1. Macroeconomic factors

The Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending, created a statistical model that helps identify how U.S. health spending varies with several macroeconomic indicators. Their research found that two macroeconomic variables account for a whopping 85% of variation in health-care spending growth between 1965 and 2011.

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Source: Daily Finance