WASHINGTON (AP) – Staying healthy is a costly business in the United States, particularly in the Northeast, government statistics show.
Annual health care spending per person totaled $6,409 in New England and $6,151 in the rest of the Northeast, compared to a national average of $5,283, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports in Tuesday’s issue of the journal Health Affairs.
The totals include spending on individual health care from all sources, including insurance, personal expenses, Medicare, Medicaid and other sources, for 2004, the most recent figures available.
Highest per capita spending was recorded in the District of Columbia, $8,295, followed by Massachusetts, $6,683; Maine, $6,540; and New York, $6,535.
“Most of these states have consistently had the highest spending over time,” said report co-author Anne Martin, an economist with the CMS Office of the Actuary. “There is no one clear explanation, but there are several similar characteristics among these states.”
For example, many of these states have high income, a high concentration of physicians and are among the states with the lowest rates of uninsured.
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