The U.S. Healthcare System Is Back to Its High-Spending Ways
For a few years, U.S. healthcare spending seemed to be under control, rising no faster than the economy as a whole. The proportion of our GDP spent on healthcare was flatter than a Nebraska cornfield in November. Here’s how much we spent on healthcare, relative to the economy as a whole, between 2009 and 2013:
- 2009: 17.3% of GDP
- 2011: 17.3% of GDP
- 2013: 17.2% of GDP
That’s a historically low rate of healthcare inflation. But much of that flattening resulted from the great recession that started in 2008. And now, it looks like healthcare spending is once again on the rise, already equaling 17.8% of GDP.
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