Healthcare Spending to be 20% of GDP by 2017

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is projecting that spending on healthcare will rise steadily over the next decade to $4.3 trillion, or 19.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product from 16.6 percent this year.

The agency reports that healthcare spending over the next decade will grow annually by nearly 2 percent more than the annual 4.9 percent growth rate of the overall economy.