The growth rate for health care spending stabilized at 8.2 percent last year, practically unchanged from 8.4 percent in 2003, but still nearly 5 percentage points above the 3.3 percent rate of inflation for the year, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change, which conducted the study. It relied on data on health care spending for privately insured Americans compiled by the U.S. Labor Department and three private groups.

The growth rate on health care costs peaked at 11.3 percent in 2001 and fell in 2002 and 2003.

Likely to Lead to More People Being Uninsured

"The fact that the decline seems to be stalling is bad news," said Paul Ginsburg, president of the center. "It's a real problem, likely to lead to more people being uninsured," he said.

Although the growth rate fell considerably from three years ago, it's still "definitely high enough to be concerned about," Ginsburg said.

Ginsburg said he expects the health care spending rate for the privately insured to be relatively unchanged in 2005, remaining near 8 percent.

Health care spending growth outpaced overall economic growth by 2.6 percentage points last year, according to the center, a public policy research organization in Washington, D.C.

Ginsburg said the 2002-03 decline reflected the absence of some one-time costs the industry had in 2000-01 as it transitioned to different forms of health care management.

Five Categories of Spending

The study tracked five categories of spending. Four of them -- hospital inpatient spending, hospital outpatient spending, physician spending, and other spending -- all had little or no change in growth rates during 2004.

The fifth category, the growth rate for prescription drug spending, fell to 7.2 percent from 8.9 percent in 2003, the fifth year in a row that the growth rate has fallen. The study attributed the change to slower growth in drug prices.

Ginsburg said construction of hospitals and outpatient facilities may contribute to the expected increase in spending during 2005.

While the growth rate in health care spending was little changed in 2004, rate increases for employer-sponsored health insurance premiums declined, with average increases expected to fall between 8 percent and 10 percent for 2005.