Health care costs have been climbing at double-digit rates in each of the past few years.  Health care costs continue to grow faster than inflation and are annually consuming a larger portion of the overall economy.  This spiraling cost results in a logical question: "What are the cost drivers that lie behind these increases?"  The implication is that if we could describe a limited set of causes, then we might be able to propose policy interventions that would serve to limit future increases.
 
The literature on "cost drivers" in health care is extensive.  While individual researchers seem to be convinced that their research has found the true "cost drivers," the larger picture is much more complex and less assuring.  Different researchers come to quite different conclusions depending on how they approached the problem and what data they uses as the basis of their analysis.
 
Dozens of research articles and news reports have been reviewed that have attempted to describe what is driving the cost of healthcare to ever increasing heights.  From those materials a classification of the types of drivers has been created.  This lis is meant to be indicative, not exhaustive of all types identified in the literature.
 
SEGMENT DRIVERS
Segments of the health care industry where spending has been increasing at the highest rates have been called "cost drivers."  These tend to vary over relatively short time periods.  Segments that have been identified most often in recent years are:
 
Inpatient hospital services
Outpatient hospital services
Outpatient care generally (including ambulatory surgery centers)
Prescription drugs.