The U.S. health care system has scored a medical hat trick, reducing deaths, hospitalizations and costs, a new study shows.
Mortality rates among Medicare patients fell 16% from 1999 to 2013. That’s equal to more than 300,000 fewer deaths a year in 2013 than in 1999, said cardiologist Harlan Krumholz, lead author of a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
“It’s a jaw-dropping finding,” Krumholz said. “We didn’t expect to see such a remarkable improvement over time.”
Researchers based the study on records from more than 68 million patients in Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people age 65 and older.
Since September, 16 major drug companies have inked deals with the Trump administration to lower prices....
