Medpagetoday.com REPORTS HERE that "healthcare spending grew slowly in 2010 -- at a rate of 3.9% -- in part because high unemployment and reduced household income led people to scrimp on doctors' visits and medications, new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) show. The slowdown in spending mirrors that seen in 2009 , a year in which healthcare spending grew at 3.8%, its slowest rate in 50 years."

"The rate of growth in healthcare spending has slowed every year since 2002, but the rates in 2009 and 2010 are particularly pronounced, according to the CMS's annual national health expenditure report."

"The report cited the lingering effects of economic recession as the reason spending on things like hospitals, prescription drugs, and doctors' visits grew more slowly than usual. Although CMS's newest data is from the first full year after the recession officially ended, recessions tend to have lingering effects on healthcare spending, several CMS analysts said at the briefing."

"The slow growth in health spending in 2009 and 2010 was influenced by slower growth in the use of healthcare goods and services as consumers remained cautious about their spending -- in part because of losses in private health insurance coverage, lower median household income, and future financial uncertainty," wrote the CMS analysts, who published their findings in the January issue of Health Affairs.

"Despite the sluggish growth in healthcare spending, the U.S. spends about one-sixth of the gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare. That's $2.6 trillion total, or $8,086 per person. However, the 3.9% growth in healthcare spending in 2010 was lower than the 4.2% increase in the GDP. Since the 1960s, healthcare spending as a share of the GDP has generally increased each year, but it held steady in 2010 at 17.9%."

"Most of the nation's overall spending on healthcare goes toward hospitals (31%), physician and and clinic services (20%), and prescription drugs (10%); the spending growth in all three areas slowed in 2010."

"Other areas of significant healthcare spending include "other professional services" such as dental care; costs to administer government insurance programs; long-term care; and home healthcare."

"Spending on hospitals in 2010 was $814 billion, a 4.9% increase from 2009 -- down from the 6.4% increase the year before. Fewer people were admitted to the hospital in 2010 than in 2009, and growth slowed for emergency room visits, outpatient visits, and outpatient surgeries, the CMS analysts said."

"There were also fewer physician office visits in 2010, which contributed to a slowdown in spending on physician and clinic services, which totaled $515.5 billion in 2010 (that was $415.8 billion on physician services and $99.7 billion on clinic services). In 2009, growth in physician and clinical services grew by 3.3%, but in 2010, it grew by just 2.5%."

"Overall prescription drug spending in 2010 was $259 billion, which represented a 1.2% increase from 2009. By comparison, from 2008 to 2009, growth in prescription medications was 5.1%."

"One area that did grow faster in 2010 than in previous years was out-of-pocket spending. It's not that consumers chose to spend more of their own money on healthcare, but that their employer-sponsored plans may have changed in 2010 to require employees to foot a greater share of their medical bills, according to the CMS analysts."

"The analysis also found that the federal government is paying for a greater share -- 29% -- of the nation's healthcare costs than in 2009, largely because of federal matching for state's Medicaid programs, which was part of the 2009 economic stimulus bill."