The Contributions of Eight Cost Drivers to the Total National Health Care Cost

Introduction: The health and the mainte¬nance of health are crucial aspects of the human existence. As all economic resources, health care resources are especially sensitive and limited. Rational, efficient and effective use of the economic health care resources poses the challenge for every society. This fact is especially important for the largest economy in the world, the United States of America, where the health care cost sig¬nificantly outpaces the rate of inflation and consumes the largest portion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all developed industrialized nations. The contemporary Literature Review has singled out eight most significant potential cost affectingindependent variables, which contribute to the aggregate dependent variable that was represented as the total national health care spending. Methodology: Business-economy and health care cost problem was indenti- fied and research questions were created. A literature review of peer-reviewed articles, government data and books was performed to investigate the documented research re¬sults on eight national aggregate health care cost drivers, by utilizing Statistical Bivariate Correlation analysis, with 80 participants, and Likert Survey scale was performed. Results: The results of the tests were interpreted and evaluated based on 95% confidence level. A graph was created for any of the hypothesis statements for which there was a significant relationship of p <0.05. Three health care cost categories: a.) provider hospital quality, b.) provider- prescription drugs and c.) overweightness and obesity have shown a significant statis¬tical correlation between the independent (cost drivers) and dependent (total national health spending) variables. Conclusion: This study focuses on the contributions of eight cost drivers to the overall national health care cost:technological changes in medical practice, third party (insurance) factors, medical providers-specialists, medical providers-hospital quality, prescription drug providers, overweightness and obesity, na¬tional per capita income growth and aging of the population.