The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Monday that total health care spending will double to more than $4 trillion a year by the year 2017. This means that our country will spend nearly 20 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for health care, outpacing economic growth and inflation, according to a report published in the Feb. 26 online edition of Health Affairs.

The costs have already reached more than $2.1 trillion in 2006, accounting for 16 percent of gross domestic product. The projected rise will happen as baby boomers begin to enter the Medicare system.

"Our expectation is that growth in health spending is expected to be steady over the projection, which is 2007 through 2017, at 6.7 percent per year," said report co-author Andrea Sisko, an economist with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"At the same time, we are expecting economic growth to slow to an average annual rate of 4.7 percent. As a result, the combination of steady health spending growth and slowing economic growth will lead to the health care part of gross domestic product rising to nearly 20 percent by 2017, nearly one-fifth of the economy," she said.

With health care a big issue in this presidential election, it will remain to be seen what kind of policy will eventually be adopted. Republicans are pushing for reform to cut Medicare costs, while Democrats are reluctant to any changes which will mean less coverage and/or higher costs for patients.