Tech Keeps Pushing Health Costs Up

More bad news for health costs - and how technology is pushing them up.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris reported on Tuesday that the health costs as a percentage of GDP in the 16 OECD countries spiked in 2008 (the latest year for which data was available) to 9 percent - up from 7.8 percent in 2000, according to Reuters.

For the United States the news was much worse:

The biggest spender on health was the United States, which spent 16 percent of its national output or $7,538 per person in 2008 -- the latest year for which full figures are available. This was well over double the $3,000 per person average of all OECD countries.

The next biggest spenders, Norway and Switzerland, spent much less than the United States per capita, but still spent around 50 percent more than the OECD average.

One of the biggest reasons for the rising health costs?

"New medical technologies are improving diagnosis and treatment but they also increase health spending," the OECD report said.