Earlier this year, the CCMS released their annual report on health care spending and the news was surprisingly good: Total healthcare spending in 2012 came in at $2.79 trillion—up just 3.7 percent over the previous year and continuing a four-year trend of significantly reducing the amount of growth in annual healthcare expenditures. By way of comparison, before the recent recession, we were averaging annual increases in health care spending of over 7 percent during the calendar years 2000-2008. The current numbers represent the slowest rate of growth since the government began tracking the data in 1960. Not only were the numbers terrific on an historic basis but, thanks to a growing economy combined with lower healthcare spending, what we shell out for health care actually decreased as a percentage of the total economy—down to 17.2 percent from 17.3 percent—for the first time since President Clinton inhabited the White House. While this may not appear...(Read Full Post)