The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary released its annual report on national health spending that showed a spending increase of 3.9 percent for calendar year 2011.  Overall health spending reached $2.7 trillion in 2011 and remained stable as a share of the gross domestic product at 17.9 percent. The rate of increase in health spending, at 3.9 percent in 2011, was the same as the rates in both 2009 and 2010, the lowest annual rates recorded in the 52 years the government has been collecting such data. The recession’s impact on insurance enrollment was one of the most influential contributors to the slower growth in national health expenditures according to the analysis. Total Medicaid spending grew 2.5 percent in calendar year 2011 to $407.7 billion, a decline from the 5.9 percent rate of growth in 2010. This was partly due to slower growth in Medicaid enrollment of 3.2 percent in 2011 compared to 4.9 percent in 2010.  Federal Medicaid expenditures decreased 7.1 percent in 2011, while state Medicaid expenditures grew 22.2 percent, reflecting the end of the enhanced Medicaid match rate from the Recovery Act that expired in June 2011.

Link: National Health Spending in 2011