Global Health and Economy: Health care costs have continued to rise in recent decades despite numerous health reform initiatives. Currently, this spending represents more than 18 percent of GDP in the United States, a percentage that is expected to continue to increase significantly. In fact, this share is projected to reach 34% of GDP by 2040 if health care costs continue to rise at historic rates. Rising health care costs have significant impacts on households, insurance companies and government budgets. For example, households with employer-sponsored health insurance will receive a progressively smaller share of their total compensation as take-home pay. On the other hand, an increasingly large fraction of compensation will take the form of employer-provided health insurance. Governments will be forced to cover more than 50 percent of health care costs if they continue to increase at historic rates. Therefore, current trends in the health care economy continue to have significant impacts on households, health insurance companies, governments, and health care organizations. Current Trends in Healthcare Economics: As mentioned earlier, one of the major trends in healthcare economics is the increase in healthcare expenses or costs to such an extent that they represent a huge share of gross domestic product. The dire consequences of this trend are demonstrated by the fact that federal, state, and local governments are currently forced to cover nearly 50 percent of current health care costs (“The Economic Case for Health Care Reform,” 2009). Rising health care costs and their impact on government budgets depend on paperwork, location of service, medical necessity, length of hospital stay and adequacy of decision-making . For payers, utilization review helps reduce costs and determine the adequacy of recommended treatment. For patients, the review helps them determine whether the health plan provides sufficient coverage for a specific medical condition. In conclusion, the healthcare sector has experienced enormous challenges, opportunities and changes in the recent past. These have contributed to various demographic, political and social trends that have had considerable impacts on the patient population and healthcare service delivery. Current trends are having substantial effects on healthcare organizations, health coverage and government budgets. This effect is attributed to the need to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthcare services for all..