Readers can decide whether this is good news or bad news: health costs likely exceeded $4.9 trillion in 2015 . Health policy wonks may scratch their heads at this figure, since the latest official figure released by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month pegged 2014 health spending at a nice round $3.0 trillion. However, my figure is much more comprehensive. It includes components of health spending not measured in the official estimates (e.g., complementary and alternative medicine and nutrition supplements), as well as informal care and the excess burden (deadweight losses) of taxes used to finance health care.
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