Spending on health care in the United States rose to $2.5 trillion (£1.6 trillion; €1.8 trillion) in 2009, experts at the government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services have estimated.

That is a rise of 5.7% over the amount spent in 2008. Spending on health care in the US now constitutes 17.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), up from 16.2% in 2008.

It is the largest percentage increase in health spending in the five decades that records have been kept. The analysis attributes much of the increase to the economic recession that struck the US in 2009, resulting …