In their recent report, economists at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Thursday that the US healthcare spending is likely to grow at an average yearly rate of 6.1 percent over the next ten-year period; thereby marking a 1.7 percent faster growth rate than the overall economy.

Elaborating further, the analysts said that, by the year 2019, almost 20 cents of each dollar spent in the US will go for healthcare, accounting for nearly 19.3 percent of the economy – as such, the expected healthcare spending in
2019 will be about $4.5 trillion.

Despite the fact that the spending on healthcare in the US is higher than that of any other country, with 17.3 percent of the economy or approximately $2.5 trillion being spent on healthcare last year, nearly 46 million people in the country still lack medical coverage.

Though the Obama administration was endeavoring to expand health coverage and cut back rising costs, the effort has been stalled after Democrats lost their Senate supermajority in the special Massachusetts election last month.

Meanwhile, highlighting the need for reforms, CMS chief actuary Richard Foster said: “This report basically says nothing much has changed in that regard. All that - rising medical costs and the uninsured - is still there; all that argues that some form of healthcare reform is still a good idea.”