Modest increase seen in US health spending in 2010

Total health spending in the United States reached US $2.6 trillion (£1.7 trillion; €2 trillion) in 2010, or US $8402 per person, according to the latest annual report from the actuary office of the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). That is an increase from US $2.5 trillion (US $8086 per person) the previous year.

A report, published in the journal Health Affairs, shows that the rate of increase last year was 3.9%, compared with 3.8% in 2009. The rates of increase in 2009 and 2010 were the lowest in the five decades that the report has been issued.

Health spending as a percentage of the …