In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government has released a new estimate that healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year, marking the largest one-year jump in its share of the economy since the government started keeping such records half a century ago.
The almost $2.5 trillion spent in 2009 was $134 billion more than the previous year, when healthcare consumed 16.2% of the gross domestic product, according to an annual report by independent actuaries at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, scheduled for release Thursday.
Medicynical Note: Healthcare reform is inevitable. The question is whether it will follow the republican dream plan for insurers or be a more benevolent plan that aims to benefit those who need care most–our citizens and those with illness.
At this point the odds are 60-40 against passage of the current initiative which would assure affordable insurance to 94% of our population and cut costs over time. Doubly amazing.
Medicynic 