National healthcare spending topped $2.3 trillion in 2008, up 4.4 percent from the previous year.
Federal healthcare spending increased 10.4 percent in 2008 and was equivalent to 36 percent of federal payments, up from 28 percent in 2007.
Federal Medicaid spending increased 8.4 percent in 2008, the highest rate since 2003, but state spending declined by 0.1 percent, the first such decline in Medicaid’s history.
Private health insurance premiums grew by 3.1 percent in 2008, the slowest rate since 1967. This was tied to a drop in the number of people with private health insurance from 196.4 million in 2007 to 195.4 million in 2008.
Retail spending on prescription drugs increased 3.2 percent in 2008, continuing a slowing trend that began in 2000.
Read Health Affairs’ article on healthcare spending.
