The good news: the total U.S. healthcare spending in 2012 grew slightly slower than the economy, causing a dip in healthcare's share of the economy. The bad news: healthcare spending still comprises almost a fifth of the U.S. economy at 17.2 percent in 2012, down from 17.3 percent in 2011.

Overall, healthcare expenditures grew during each of the past four years at the slowest rates ever in the 53-year history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts, said the CMS Office of the Actuary analysis released Monday in Health Affairs and in a news release. Annual spending growth rates have been between 3.6 percent and 3.8 percent annually since 2009.

Healthcare’s slower acceleration after 2009 is the result of leftover effects of the recent recession and “… the mostly one-time effects of a large number of blockbuster prescription drugs losing patent protection and a Medicare payment reduction to skilled nursing facilities,” said Anne Martin, an economist in CMS’s actuary office, in the release.

The Affordable Care Act had minimal impact on 2012 health spending except through several provisions, including higher Medicaid rebates for prescription drugs, the Medicare drug coverage gap, or donut hole, discount program, and coverage for dependents under age 26.

The analysis noted there was an uptick in growth in some areas and a slowdown in others.

Areas that accelerated in 2012 from the previous year were hospital spending, up 4.9 percent from 3.4 percent, on prices and utilization; physician and clinical services, up 4.6 percent from 4.1 percent on utilization and complexity of services; Medicaid expenditures, up 3.3 percent from 2.4 percent (but still two of the slowest growth rate years in Medicaid history); and out-of-pocket spending, up 3.8 percent from 3.5 percent, on higher cost sharing for physician and clinical services (but tempered by use of generics).

Areas where spending slowed compared to 2011 were retail prescription drugs, up 0.4 percent from 2.5 percent, on patent expirations and the shift to generics; nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities, up 1.6 percent from 4.3 percent, on a one-time Medicare payment reduction to adjust for a large increase the previous year; private health insurance, up 3.2 percent from 3.4 percent, on enrollment gains in high-deductible plans with lower premiums; and Medicare spending, up 4.8 percent from 5.0 percent on one-time payment reduction for skilled nursing facilities despite have the largest one-year increase in Medicare enrollment.

See also:

Regulatory mandates spark HIT spending uptick

Health differences trigger Medicare spending variations, study finds

Structural changes causing lower health spending growth, studies find