CMS Estimates that Health Care Spending Was Up to 17.3 Percent of GDP in 2009

In 2009 the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have increased 1.1 percentage points to 17.3 percent – the largest single-year increase since 1960, according to a report published by CMS in the Feb. 4 edition of  Health Affairs and described in the Washington Post.  Health care spending is estimated to have grown 5.7 percent in 2009 to reach $2.5 trillion, compared with health care spending growth of 4.4 percent in 2008 and 6 percent in 2007.

The CMS article reported that health spending by government programs, primarily Medicare and Medicaid, is projected to have grown by 8.7 percent, which would account for $1.2 trillion of the overall 2009 spending. Employer-based health insurance and private spending is projected to have grown by 3 percent, accounting for the remaining $1.3 trillion.