Many Americans are making a healthier lifestyle a top priority for 2025. But as important as diet and exercise are, policies by the incoming administration and Congress also will have an impact on the nation’s health and costs.
Demographics will determine the demand for health-care services, while Medicare changes, staffing constraints and technology will determine the supply of these services. Together, these trends will determine the quantity and quality of industry growth in the new year.
“We continue to be bullish on the health-care industry as the macro forces of an aging U.S. population and new treatment innovations make health care an attractive industry in 2025 and beyond,” Ben Johnston, COO of the financial services company Kapitus, told The Epoch Times.
However, he sees proposed changes to Medicare that would give the states more control of the program and proposed work requirements in exchange for coverage limiting the total number of insured, thus constraining demand for health-care services. According to Business Group on Health, projected health care costs will jump to almost 8% for 2025, the highest amount in more than a decade.
Thomas Kluz, managing director of Venture Lab, also is concerned about staffing constraints in 2025 for different reasons. “The pandemic, system inefficiencies and wage cuts continued to be a present burden on health-care workers on top of their drained physical and mental health,” he said. “AI and automation will be key to taking some of this pressure off by reducing administrative burdens.”
Dr. Stacey Lee, a professor of health-care and business law at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Bloomberg School of Public Health, sees the prospect of changing rules and choices in the health-care industry to improve access to services and rein in costs. As reported by Metro Voice News, direct primary care is experiencing significant growth, with memberships seeing an average annual increase of 36 percent.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, U.S. healthcare spending has already risen 7.5% to nearly $5 trillion last year.
“The projected 8 percent rise in health-care costs next year will force providers and patients to rethink how care is delivered and paid for,” he said. “My work with health-care organizations shows that direct primary care isn’t just another payment model; it fundamentally changes how doctors and patients work together. When we strip away layers of billing complexity, we often find that quality and efficiency improve.”
Lee believes that the soaring health-care costs will reshape the demand for and supply of health-care services, with price transparency becoming a critical factor for the functioning of health-care markets.
“My research in health-care negotiations shows that when patients can compare prices, it doesn’t just help them make better choices,” he said. “It changes how health-care organizations compete and set their prices. The incoming administration’s emphasis on transparency could accelerate these changes.”
–Alan Goforth and Epoch Times