Health Care Costs Hit All-Time High

Health care spending hit a record 17.3% of GDP last year, up from 16.2% in 2008, according to new figures from the government’s nonpartisan Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Today’s report also predicts that by next year, the government may be paying 50% or more of those costs—something that last year they predicted would happen in 2016, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Medicare and Medicaid spending each jumped more than 8% last year. The figures point to the necessity of reform, particularly because spending is increasing even as the number of Americans with insurance decreases, the CMS points out. “With higher unemployment, people lose their jobs; many of them lose their health care coverage in the process,” said the group’s chief actuary. “And under current law, they don't have much to fall back on.” (More health care costs stories.)