Nonprofit hospitals to do more with less: Moodys

(Reuters) - Nonprofit hospitals in the United States face a future of rising costs and dwindling funds as the healthcare reform is implemented and the Congress battles over the budget, according to a Moody's Investors Services report released on Wednesday.

In a new Time Magazine cover story, reporter Steven Brill writes a rather lengthy piece about the huge problem with health care costs in the United States.

Moody's has stepped forward with the first warning shot across the bow that: *MOODY'S: MORE MEDIUM TERM ACTIONS MAY BE NEEDED TO SUPPORT Aaa Has contradicted itself (from September) on the debt-ceiling breach; and warns that while the deal 'mitigates' some fiscal drag, it does not remove it. To wit: the IMF piles on:

The politics of immigration reform in the United States are principally about big things and decades long time horizons: human rights, economic competitiveness, nationalism and the viability of the Democratic and Republican voting coalitions. But they’re also about the country’s demographics — and thus its fiscal health.

Insider Monkey submits: According to Milliman Medical Index, healthcare spending is rising at a rate of nearly 8%. In 2010, a typical American family of four spent $18,074 on medical costs, vs. $16,771 in 2009. The upward trend in healthcare costs is not a recent phenomenon. Annual medical costs increased by almost 35% in the last 4 years; from $13382 in 2006 to $18,074 in 2010.

Monica Potts on health care costs: