title: National Health Spending: Faster Growth In 2015 As Coverage Expands And Utilization Increases.
abstract: Total nominal US health care spending increased 5.8 percent and reached $3.2 trillion in 2015. On a per person basis, spending on health care increased 5.0 percent, reaching $9,990. The share of gross domestic product devoted to health care spending was 17.8 percent in 2015, up from 17.4 percent in 2014. Coverage expansions that began in 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act continued to affect health spending growth in 2015. In that year, the faster growth in total health care spending was primarily due to accelerated growth in spending for private health insurance (growth of 7.2 percent), hospital care (5.6 percent), and physician and clinical services (6.3 percent). Continued strong growth in Medicaid (9.7 percent) and retail prescription drug spending (9.0 percent), albeit at a slower rate than in 2014, contributed to overall health care spending growth in 2015.
authors.affiliation: Anne B. Martin (anne.martin@cms.hhs.gov) is an economist in the Office of the Actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Micah Hartman is a statistician in the CMS Office of the Actuary.
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.affiliation: Benjamin Washington is an economist in the CMS Office of the Actuary.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Washington
authors.affiliation: Aaron Catlin is a deputy director of the National Health Statistics Group in the CMS Office of the Actuary.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catlin
mesh_terms: D059066:Gross Domestic Product / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States
keywords: Cost of Health Care; Financing Health Care; Health Spending