Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Medicare and Medicaid Spending Will Rise With Increasing Health Care Costs

Health care costs have risen faster than the economy over the past few decades. This directly contributes to the uncontrolled growth of Medicare and Medicaid costs. It is expected that health care costs will continue to increase rapidly in the future and that this will be one of the main drivers of future increases in entitlement spending.

National Spending on Health Care as a Percentage of GDP

Source: Congressional Budget Office based on data on spending on health service and supplies at state and federal level, as defined in the national health expenditure accounts, maintained by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.