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Use of medical technology in the United States jumped sharply between 1996 and 2007, driven by increased use of advanced medical imaging tests, this report released by U.S. health officials.

The report on U.S. health trends by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics draws from data collected by state and federal health agencies and national surveys. It includes a special section on the use of medical technology.

Among the findings:

• The rate of advanced diagnostic imaging tests -- magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, computed tomography or CT and positron emission tomography or PET scans -- tripled between 1996 and 2007.
• Use of advanced diagnostic imaging tests in the emergency room increased fivefold among adults under 65, and quadrupled among adults 65 and older.
• Hospital discharges for knee replacement surgery done on people over 45 rose 70 percent between 1996 and 2006.
• Among people over 45, use of drugs to treat diabetes rose 50 percent between the 1988-1994 and 2003-2006 survey periods, mirroring increases in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes.
• In the 1988-1994 period, 10 percent of people 45 and older had been diagnosed with diabetes; by 2003-2006, this had grown to 13 percent.
• During the same time, use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs increased tenfold among people 45 and older, rising from about 2 percent to 22 percent of people in that age group.
• Forty-seven percent of the population took at least one prescription drug in 2003-2006, up from 38 percent in 1988-1994.
• The percentage of the population taking three or more prescription drugs increased to 21 percent from 11 percent during the same time.

Health Costs Rise As Insurance Coverage Falls

• The percentage of people under 65 with private insurance coverage -- which helps determine a person's access to health care -- fell to 67 percent in 2007 from 73 percent in 1999. Enrollment in Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, increased.
• Health costs to treat individuals tripled between 1990 and 2007, to $1.9 trillion from $600 billion.
• In 2007, slightly more than half of personal health costs were paid by private sources, such as private insurance companies, out-of-pocket payments by consumers or philanthropy.
• Government insurance programs paid an increasingly large share of rising health costs between 1990 and 2007, with Medicaid paying 9 percent more each year and Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly, paying an extra 8 percent per year.

Source: Reuters

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