Total nominal U.S. health care spending increased 5.8 percent and reached $3.2 trillion in 2015, according to a paper published by officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) in the journal Health Affairs.
On a per person basis, according to the paper, spending on health care increased 5.0 percent, reaching $9,990.
The paper, authored by Anne B. Martin, Micah Hartman, Benjamin Washington, Aaron Catlin, and the National Health Expenditure Accounts Team, found that the share of gross domestic product devoted to health care spending was 17.8 percent in 2015, up from 17.4 percent in 2014. The paper found that coverage expansions that began in 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act continued to affect health spending growth in 2015. In 2015, 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), according to the paper.
The authors also said that 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.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].