The Costs and Benefits of Health Spending in 2015

On December 2, Anne Martin and the actuarial team at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their estimates of national health spending for 2015. The headline news was that health expenditure growth has increased relative to prior years, and that the health care share of gross domestic product (GDP) hit a high of 17.8 percent in 2015. The annual estimates tell us a lot about growth in spending, sources of funding, and broad categories of use. They don't, however, tell us much about the level and allocation of benefits from additional spending. Another way to consider the growth in national health expenditures is to see who has benefited from it and how.