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National health spending will average more than $10,000 a person this year for the first time, the Obama administration said Wednesday, a milestone that heralds somewhat faster growth in health spending after several years of exceptionally low growth. By 2025, the administration reported, health care will represent 20 percent of the total economy, up from 17.8 percent last year. By 2025, one of every five Americans will be on Medicare, and the program will spend an average of nearly $18,000 a year for each beneficiary. Medicare spent about $12,000 per beneficiary in 2015. (Pear, 7/13)

A stronger economy, faster growth in medical prices and an aging population are driving the trend. Medicare and Medicaid are expected to grow more rapidly than private insurance as the baby-boom generation ages. By 2025, government at all levels will account for nearly half of health care spending, 47 percent. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/14)

The report, compiled by a team of government actuaries, shows overall health spending picking up after a historic slowdown, but the growth remains lower than the nearly 8 percent annual growth in the two decades before the Great Recession. The Obama administration — including the president himself in a recent essay — has credited the Affordable Care Act with keeping health expenditures in check. But economists remain uncertain whether the slowdown in spending is because of provisions of the law or might be explained by other factors. (Johnson, 7/13)

The pickup in the past two years follows five consecutive years in which average spending growth through 2013 was less than 4% annually, the lowest rates since the government began tracking health-care spending in the 1960s. The acceleration is largely attributed to a stronger economy, faster growth in medical prices and an aging baby boom generation. Spending growth in 2014 and 2015 was also driven by expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act because it means more people are using health services. At the same time, the law has helped rein in spending growth, administration officials said. However, the actuaries said quantitative estimates that measure the impact of the ACA aren’t yet available. (Armour, 7/13)

Drug spending has been a particularly scrutinized area given calls to address the rising cost of prescription medications. The report finds that drug spending grew 8.1 percent last year, a slight slowdown from the spike of 12.2 percent the year before. (Sullivan, 7/13)

CMS actuaries wrote that higher rates of health coverage through Medicaid expansion and the ACA's public exchanges, as well as more people getting insurance through their employers, “resulted in a slight acceleration in spending growth.” Indeed, 2014 kicked off the full-scale rollout of expanded Medicaid eligibility for all people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level as well as the introduction of the state and federal insurance marketplaces. The exchanges have become financial headaches for many health insurers, though not all. (Herman, 7/13)

“The Affordable Care Act continues to help keep overall health spending growth at a modest level and at a lower growth rate than the previous two decades. This progress is occurring while also helping more Americans get coverage, often for the first time,” said CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt in a statement. (Owens, 7/13)