US Health Care Spending Hit $3.6 Trillion In 2018 - Government Report

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2019) US health care spending hit $3.6 trillion last year, growing at its fastest rate since 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in report.

"US health care spending increased 4.6 percent to reach $3.6 trillion in 2018, a faster growth rate than the rate of 4.2 percent in 2017 but the same rate as in 2016," the report, posted on healthaffairs.org, said on Thursday.

But it said the 0.4-percentage-point acceleration in overall growth in 2018 was driven by faster growth in both private health insurance and Medicare, which were influenced by the reinstatement of the health insurance tax.

Personal health care spending growth in 2018 remained unchanged from 2017 at 4.1 percent.

The total number of uninsured people increased by 1.0 million for the second year in a row, to reach 30.7 million in 2018.

Despite the rise in almost every matrix of health care, the share of the economy devoted to health care spending declined to 17.7 percent in 2018, compared to 17.9 percent in 2017.