Could Health Care Spending Double?

Government officials are predicting that United States health care spending will almost double over the next 10 years. By 2017, it is thought that health care spending will reach approximately $4.3 trillion. As you can imagine, this is an issue that is quite concerning for a number of reasons.

In 2011, a big event will take place that will put a huge burden on health care spending. This is the year in which post-World War baby boomers will begin to qualify for Medicare. As you can imagine, this alone is going to cost quite a bit of money.

At this time, there are approximately 47 million Americans out of 300 million who do not have health insurance coverage. While this number is still growing, many are holding out hope that the next president will be able to not only slow this trend, but hopefully begin to reverse it. Of course, this is no minor task to say the least.

In 2007, reports showed that United States health care spending came in at a whopping $2.2 trillion. In order for this number to double by 2017, the annual spending growth would have to equal 6.7 percent.

Even though it appears far fetched right now, it is safe to say that health care spending will almost double over the next decade. The question is: how will Americans and the United States economy handle this? While there is nothing wrong with hoping that the next president will bring relief, there is no way that he or she can change the number of baby boomers that will become eligible for Medicare in the next decade.