Backing up its belief that comprehensive health care reform in Washington, D.C., should not focus solely on insurance, the trade group representing health insurers says new data on health costs is further proof of the need for more widespread change.

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), representing 1,300 member companies nationwide, pointed to new projections released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which indicate health care’s share of the economy grew 1.1 percentage points in 2009. That marks the largest one-year increase in gross domestic product share in 50 years.

Karen Ignagni

In a statement, AHIP President Karen Ignagni said rising health care costs are “crushing our economy and adding a burden on working families and employers across the country.

“The new CMS data confirm that rising health care costs are driven by increases in underlying medical costs, not health plan administrative costs,” she said. “In fact, the proportion of health insurance premiums that go towards administrative costs is declining as overall health care costs continue to soar. “

Ignagni repeated AHIP’s call for a “national, long-term strategy” to address growing medical costs or health care spending “will continue to grow far faster than the economy as a whole, crowding out other important domestic priorities, such as education, energy, and deficit reduction.”

The report, published in the Feb. 4 edition of Health Affairs, notes that the two primary drivers of growth are medical prices (up 3.2% in spending) and utilization (up 1.5%) in 2009. The study also noted that prescription drug spending is expected to have grown 5.2% in 2009, an increase of 2 percentage points from a year earlier, reaching $246.3 billion.