Health care now 15.3% of US GDP

Business Insurance magazine notes that health care costs are now over 15% of GDP – following is an excerpt from their article on same:
” In 2003, health expenditures in the United States climbed 7.7%, to $1.7 trillion, down substantially from a 9.3% growth rate in 2002, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Still, because health costs rose much more than the overall growth in the economy, health spending accounted for a record 15.3% of the GDP in 2003, up from 14.9% in 2002.
Of the nation’s $1.7 trillion health care tab, private payers, such as health insurers and self-funded employers, paid out $913.2 billion in 2003, an increase of 8.6%.
Hospital spending, which accounts for about one-third of national health care expenditures, climbed 6.5% in 2003, down from 8.5% in 2002. Spending growth for prescription drugs slowed significantly, with costs rising 10.7% in 2003, down from 14.9% in 2002. CMS attributed the slowdown in prescription drug costs increases to several drugs losing their patent protection and lower-cost generics becoming available and the expanded use of tiered co-payment plans, which give employees a financial incentive to use lower-cost generics. ”