Economy, Prices, And Aging Expected To Shape Spending And Enrollment
A report from the federal Department of Health and Human Services shows that growth in national health expenditures is projected to average 5.8 percent for the period 2015 through 25, the authors said. This rate of increase will outpace growth in the gross domestic product by 1.3 percentage points and the health share of the economy is expected to climb from 17.5 percent in 2014 to 20.1 percent in 2025. One reason for this growth is that millions of Americans gained health insurance coverage in 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act and health spending growth reflected this change, increasing from 2.9 percent in 2013 to 5.3 percent in 2014. The expectation for the period 2017 through 2019 is for health spending growth to accelerate somewhat (averaging 5.7 percent), in part as a result of the effect of faster growth in health care prices. The report was published in Health Affairs.
