Personal health-care spending in New York nearly doubled from 1988 to 1998, from $44.025 billion to $85.785 billion, a new analysis of federal data shows.
New York has 6.7 percent of the nation's population, but personal health spending here accounted for 8.4 percent of the $1.016 trillion in expenditures nationwide in 1998, according the state Conference of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.
The association of insurers reviewed state-by-state health expenditure data from the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration, the first such data released since 1993.
The data include most spending on care by hospitals, physicians, dentists, home care agencies, and prescription and nonprescription drugs.
New York's per capita spending rose from $2,454 in 1988 to $4,720 in 1998. U.S. per capita spending was $960 less than New York's in 1998, a difference of about 26 percent.
The data showed also that:
- Hospitals took in 35 percent of all health-care spending in New York, followed by physicians and other professional services (22 percent) and nursing home care (11 percent). Nonprescription drugs and prescription drugs accounted for 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
- Personal spending for all hospital services, including hospital-based nursing-home care, rose 73 percent to $32.636 billion in 1998. Per capita spending for 1998 was $1,796 in New York; nationally, it was $1,406.
- Spending on doctors and other professional services rose 101 percent to $20.1 billion. New York's per capita spending for 1998 was $1,106 in 1998; nationally, it was $1,095.
- Prescription drug spending grew 228 percent. Per capita spending for prescription drugs in New York State was $392; the national average was $335.