Sabriya Rice, Business of Healthcare Reporter (2/16/2017)
Americans spent nearly $3.4 trillion on health care in 2016 and those costs are outpacing the average
projected increases in the gross domestic product, according to data published Wednesday.
Health spending grew 4.8 percent in 2016, slightly less than the year before when it rose 5.8 percent.
However, don’t expect the expenditures to stall for long, the report found. They could account for nearly 20 percent of U.S. spending by 2025.
The new data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was published online in the policy journal Health Affairs.
According to the analysis, health care spending will grow at an annual average of 5.6 percent from 2016-2025, leaving the nation’s health care tab at $5.5 trillion in less than a decade. That would account for about one-fifth of the economy and dip into the budgets needed to fund other national priorities.
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