U.S. Health Spending Dips

The good news: the total U.S. healthcare spending in 2012 grew slightly slower than the economy, causing a dip in healthcare's share of the economy. The bad news: healthcare spending still comprises almost a fifth of the U.S. economy at 17.2 percent in 2012, down from 17.3 percent in 2011.

Overall, healthcare expenditures grew during each of the past four years at the slowest rates ever in the 53-year history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts, said the CMS Office of the Actuary analysis released Monday in Health Affairs and in a news release. Annual spending growth rates have been between 3.6 percent and 3.8 percent annually since 2009.