4 things to know about the slowdown in healthcare spending

A new study published in Health Affairs has found about 70 percent of the recent decline in healthcare spending growth was due to the economic downturn.

For the study, economists from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., examined private insurance claims data covering 2007 to 2011 from the Health Care Cost Institute.

Here are four things to know about the slowdown in healthcare spending from the study.

1. From 2009 to 2011, healthcare spending growth for the examined population slowed by 2.6 percent from the previous two years.

2. The authors of the study predicted health spending growth would have been 1.8 percent higher if the economy had not weakened in 2008.

3. Seventy percent of the decline in healthcare spending was due to the sluggish economy and not other factors such as healthcare reform, according to the study's analysis.

4. Healthcare spending increased less in areas of the country that were affected by economic downturn. For example, health spending in Las Vegas — a city strongly affected by the weakened economy — increased by 5.6 percent from 2007 to 2011. In contrast, in Trenton, N.J. — where the unemployed population only slightly increased during the economic downturn — healthcare spending increased 29 percent. 

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