Austin Frakt Marvels at the Slowing Growth Trajectory of National Health Expenditures

Austin Frakt: Chart: Growth trajectory of national health expenditures | The Incidental Economist:

Aaron noted a recent JAMA study titled “The Anatomy of Health Care in the United States.” It turns out it’s chock full of great charts. We like charts! So, I’ll share some over the next few weeks. Here’s one that you’ve no doubt seen before, or part thereof. Still, it’s too nice a chart not to share. It certainly puts the recent slowdown (bottom time series) in perspective, doesn’t it? Unprecedented.

The question is: do you want to look at the growth in health, or at the growth in health spending relative to the rest of the economy? Everything else, remember, shrank–and shrank substantially–in 2008-9. That health care spending did not was already anomalous, and I see no signs in the top graph that the trend in health spending relative to total spending has changed.

So don’t break out the champagne.

Yet.