The federal health law which will expand coverage to 30 million currently uninsured Americans will have little effect on the nations rising health spending in the next decade says a new report by the Medicare Office of the Actuary reports Kaiser Health News.
- The report estimates that health spending will grow by an average of 5.8 percent a year through 2020 compared to 5.7 percent without the health overhaul.
- With that growth the nation is expected to spend $4.6 trillion on health care in 2020 nearly double the $2.6 trillion spent last year.
In 2014 when the major coverage expansions of the health law begin to take effect national health spending is expected to grow 8.3 percent according to the new analysis.
