WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's respite from accelerating health care costs appears to be over.
Spending on health care will outpace the nation's overall economic growth over the next decade, the government forecast on Tuesday, underscoring a coming challenge for the next president, not to mention taxpayers, businesses and individual Americans.
A combination of expanded insurance coverage under President Barack Obama's law, an aging population, and rising demand, will be squeezing society's ability to pay.
By 2019, midway through the next president's term, health care spending will be increasing at roughly 6 percent a year, compared to an average annual rise of 4 percent from 2008 through 2013.
