U.S. health care spending by 2016 will almost double to $4.1 trillion and account for 20% of every dollar spent, according to a report released on Wednesday by the National Health Statistics Group at CMS.
According to the report, published on the Health Affairs Web site, public and private health care spending will increase to about $12,782 per capita by 2016 from about $7,498 per capita in 2006.
The report estimated that public spending will account for 48.7% of total health care spending by 2016, compared with 40% in 1990 and 38% in 1970. In addition, the report estimated that total out-of-pocket health care spending will increase to $440.8 billion by 2016 from about $250.6 billion in 2006.
Costs for core health care services, such as hospitals and physicians until 2016 will increase by 6% to 7% annually, or about one to two percentage points more than the overall economy.