International Health Care Spending

Abstract

Each quarter Health Affairs tracks a significant sector of the health care sphere: national health care spending in Fall, health employment in Winter, health status and health care utilization in Spring, and health care innovation in Summer. In this quarter, Gerard F. Anderson, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, who wrote on national medical care spending last year, updates his report In tandem with this DataWatch, George Schieber and Jean-Pierre Poullier of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, present the latest data on international health spending. Lastly, Ross Mullner of the American Hos-pital Association compares data of rural and urban hospital closures.