Health care costs: will they start rising rapidly again?

Recent news reports have speculated that health care costs, which have been increasing at dramatically lower rates over the past few years, are about to take off again. But a panel convened by the Center for Studying Health System Change to discuss health care cost trends said the forces that have kept large cost increases at bay are still in effect and premium increases will be moderate. This Issue Brief reports on what the panel participants predicted is likely to happen to health care costs during the next several years and what underlying forces will shape these trends.