Despite being hit by recession, healthcare spending across America in 2008 reached a whopping $2.3 Trillion, or $7.681 per person. In all, the spending grew faster than the country's economy, according to a new study.

But this does not change the fact that all the expenses on healthcare during 2008, which is an increment of 4.4%, represented the slowest growth rate in about 50 long years, since the Federal Government started tracking the spending that is.

For 2008, healthcare spending accounted for 16.2% of the GDP, as compared to the 2007 figure of 15.9%. The numbers have been confirmed by the yearly report released by the U. S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

"Health-care spending is usually somewhat insulated from the immediate impact of a downturn in the economy, but this recession has exerted considerable influence on the health-care sector", said the report's co-author Micah Hartman, an agency statistician.

Expenses on healthcare, as confirmed by the report, accounted for nearly 36% of the total federal spending.

Details of the report have been published in the January issue of the journal Health Affairs.