For those who need to spend the money in their flexible health spending account by the end of the year, the Chicago Tribune supplies a long list of items that qualify, including sunscreen and birth-control pills.
Although doctors and nurses are badly paid by European standards, staff costs account for half of health spending.
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Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said the election is important because regions control spending on health care and education and account for half of government employees.
The big entitlements Medicare and Medicaid account for 46% of health care spending, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Twenty percent of people account for 70 percent of health-care spending, according to Ed Howard, of the Alliance for Health Reform.
So, while pharmaceuticals account for only 10 percent of health care spending, medicines are inevitably caught up in efforts to tame its growth.
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In many other countries, such direct contributions by the public to the national health system account for a larger share of total health spending.
They account for just 4% of total health care spending and typically have had lower gross margins than drugs--50% versus 80%.
He believed the tax-free treatment could lower health costs and thought everyone should have access to a flexible-spending account.
Chronic diseases, which are often preventable, are responsible for 7 of 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation's health spending.
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It is pretty clear why Mr Darling has failed to offer the country an honest account of the cuts in public spending that are needed to restore the public finances to health.
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