Health Affairs attributes the rise in insurance costs largely to the health insurance tax, which was suspended in 2017 but went back into effect in 2018. (Image: Shutterstock)
Health care spending grew last year but shrunk as a portion of overall spending.
A new analysis published in Health Affairs by Micah Hartman, a statistician in the CMS Office of the Actuary, finds that national health care spending increased by 4.6 percent in 2018 to $3.6 trillion, or 17.7 percent of the overall economy. That's down from 17.9 percent the previous year.
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