HHS: Medicare spending hits historic low

Medicare spending per beneficiary grew just 0.4% per capita in fiscal year 2012, continuing a pattern of very low growth in 2010 and 2011, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Projections by both the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and by the Congressional Budget Office estimate that Medicare spending per beneficiary will grow at approximately the rate of growth of the economy for the next decade, HHS says, breaking a decades-old pattern of spending growth outstripping economic growth.

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