Employee benefits are effective because they cover the cost of health care, which seem to be increasing on a regular basis. This held true in March as well, based on the results of a recent report.
Health care prices grew slightly more than 1 percent in March when compared with the same month in 2013, according to new data from the Altarum Institute. Additionally, hospital prices rose by 1.3 percent.
This helps explain why national spending grew substantially as well, up just over 7 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Charles Roehrig, director of the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending, indicated that despite the substantial uptick, there likely won't be as big of a jump in the coming months.
"Health spending growth rates have increased rapidly in recent months, but the 7.1 percent figure observed for March may well mark the end of this acceleration," said Roehrig. "This is because of a leveling off in the numbers of newly insured under the Affordable Care Act. The 10 percent annualized growth rate for the first quarter of 2014 that has received recent media coverage is based upon comparison to the preceding quarter and is not an indicator of annual growth for 2014 as a whole."
Using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, President Barack Obama and his administration noted the 10 percent increase because it bodes favorably for the ACA, BenefitsPro reported. In other words, because there's more spending, it suggests that a higher number of people are covered, due largely to the health reform law.
But the ACA is also having some unintended consequences. A recent survey from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that more employers are cutting back on staffing levels in preparation for the employer mandate, forecasting higher operating costs.
