Healthcare to consume 20% of US GDP by 2015

The cost of American health care is to absorb as much as a fifth of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, according to estimates.

A report in the journal Health Affairs predicted that health spending in the country would increase by 7.1 per cent every year for the next ten years ? 2.1 per cent quicker than growth in GDP. By 2015 it is expected that $4 trillion of US money will be spent on keeping Americans well.

The statistics, produced by federal bodies Medicare and Medicaid Services, have caused analysts to warn that the working poor will find it more difficult to afford health services in the coming years.

Paul Ginsburg of the Centre for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC) told Knight Ridder newspapers: “When spending on health care goes up faster than earnings, lower-paid people are priced out of the health-insurance market.”

Mr Ginsburg said that the fast growth in spending will give state agencies providing forms of medical support a headache ? whose revenues from tax broadly grow with GDP.

“If GDP [growth] is being outstripped by health-care spending it will cause greater problems paying for programs like Medicaid and Medicare,” he said.

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