Snapshot: Is increased health care spending worth it?

As the high cost of health care remains a top financial stressor for many Americans, consumers must struggle with the question of whether a particular medical service is worth the price. IT’s becoming an even more pressing question as new innovations come to market, including million-dollar cancer drugs and costly gene therapies.

Recently, a team of researchers examined the relationship between health care outcomes and spending, concluding that the value of medical care increased by $113,000 over the 13-year period between 1999 and 2012, or approximately 1.5% per year. (The researchers used a list of quality-of-life criteria to calculate both increased life expectancy and the value of the additional years lived.) This suggests that, while we’re spending more on health care, we’re also getting better outcomes.

Related: Americans divided on whether medical treatments are worth the cost

But the results aren’t uniform. Some areas of health care are getting more bang for the buck than others. The value of improved quality-of-life outcomes from cardiovascular care has vastly outpaced the increase in spending, for example, while musculoskeletal and renal care have actually seen a decrease in quality of life, despite increases in costs. In the matter of musculoskeletal issues, researchers point to an increased reliance on opioids for pain management, which increases overall costs but offers little overall improvement in quality of life.

Take a look at the conditions for which the quality of outcomes has had the greatest ROI, and where we should be rethinking how we’re spending our health care dollars.

Read more:

• 5 low-value health care procedures account for $25B in consumer spending
• Life expectancy for older adults increasingly depends on where they live
• Addressing quality and cost in health care: Employers and providers team up