In an article in Health Affairs, federal auditors said healthcare
spending will make up 20 percent of the US gross domestic product by the
end of the decade as government subsidies expand, Bloomberg reported
Thursday.

The Office of the Actuary at the US Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services said national health expenditures rose 4 percent to
$2.6 trillion in 2010 from a year earlier, with growth fueled by demand
from 30 million Americans who will receive new subsidies under the
health overhaul.

Health expenses this decade will rise at an average annual rate
of 5.8 percent, or 1.1 percent more than anticipated US economic growth,
with higher spending on health insurance, prescription drugs and
physician services outstripping rising hospital costs.

Specifically, spending on prescription medicines from drugmakers
will increase 11 percent in 2014, or more than twice as fast than if
the health overhaul weren’t enacted, according to the projections.

“It just rearranges health-care spending so different people get
to take advantage of it,” commented American Enterprise Institute
economist Joseph Antos.