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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.
Total US health care spending increased 5.8 percent and reached $3.2 trillion in 2015, or $9,990 per person (Exhibit 1). Following five consecutive years of historically low growth, from 2009 through 2013, health spending growth accelerated in 2014 (to 5.3 percent) and 2015 (to 5.8 percent). The faster growth in 2014 and 2015 occurred as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded health insurance coverage for individuals through Marketplace health insurance plans and the Medicaid program.
Following the Great Recession, which extended from December 2007 through June 2009, growth in the overall economy and in health spending converged from 2010 through 2013. During this period, gross domestic product (GDP) and total health spending increased at similar average annual rates-3.7 percent and 3.6percent, respectively-and the health spending share of GDP stabilized at an average of 17.3percent (Exhibit 2). In 2014 and 2015, while growth in GDP averaged 4.0 percent, health spending growth accelerated, increasing at an average annual rate of 5.5 percent. As a result, the health spending share of GDP increased by 0.6 percentage point over the two-year period, reaching 17.8 percent in 2015. In 2015 alone, the health spending share of GDP increased 0.4 percentage point, as an acceleration in health spending growth (from 5.3 percent in 2014 to 5.8 percent in 2015) was accompanied by a slowdown in overall economic growth (from 4.2 percent in 2014 to 3.7 percent in...