Health Care Spending Projected to Increase Significantly

U.S. health care spending is projected to grow from 4.3 percent in 2016 to 5.3 percent this year and 5.7 percent by 2021, according to the CMS Actuary Office. As such, the United States is on track to spend about one in every five dollars on health care in 2026, or $5.7 trillion. That would be up from $3.3 trillion in 2016.  However, spending by employers on private insurance is expected to drop from 5.6 percent in 2017 to 4.1 percent in 2020, largely due to the proliferation of high-deductible plans that require workers to pay more toward their care.  Read Health Affairs paper.