Let us examine some interesting facts on healthcare spending.

U.S. Health Care Spending to Double by 2017

According to a recent report published in the online edition of Health Affairs,U.S. healthcare spending is projected to reach $4.3 trillion. This equates to approximately one fifth (or 19.5%) of the gross domestic product(GDP).Hospital spending is expected to increase and gradually slow down through 2017, going from $696.7 billion in 2007 to more than $1.3 trillion in 2017. Prescription drug spending is expected to slow down initially and then start to accelerate through 2017. Drug spending will increase from $231.3 billion in 2007 to $515.7 billion in 2017.

Healthcare spending to double in India by 2012

For an emerging economy, India spends a small $14.8 billion on healthcare which equates to roughly 5.2% of the GDP. This will however change quickly and the country is expected to spend $33.6 billion by 2012 with healthcare spending accounting for 8.5% of the economy.

Here is a graph comparing spending for some countries as a % of their GDP of their stack up currently (Source: WHO Health Statistics,2007).