title: National health spending in 2011: overall growth remains low, but some payers and services show signs of acceleration.
abstract: In 2011 US health care spending grew 3.9 percent to reach $2.7 trillion, marking the third consecutive year of relatively slow growth. Growth in national health spending closely tracked growth in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and 2011, and health spending as a share of GDP remained stable from 2009 through 2011, at 17.9 percent. Even as growth in spending at the national level has remained stable, personal health care spending growth accelerated in 2011 (from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent), in part because of faster growth in spending for prescription drugs and physician and clinical services. There were also divergent trends in spending growth in 2011 depending on the payment source: Medicaid spending growth slowed, while growth in Medicare, private health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending accelerated. Overall, there was relatively slow growth in incomes, jobs, and GDP in 2011, which raises questions about whether US health care spending will rebound over the next few years as it typically has after past economic downturns.
authors.affiliation: Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Baltimore, MD, USA. micah.hartman@cms.hhs.gov
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benson
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catlin
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends*; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000639:trends; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D010548:Personal Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs