About 5 percent of the population is responsible for almost half of all health care spending in the United States and for rising premium rates, according to a new report from the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation. U.S. spending for health care has been on a “relentless upward path,” the report claims, reaching $2.5 trillion in the aggregate, $8,100 per person, and 17.6 percent of GDP in 2009.

Of the nearly $8,100 in health spending for each person in the U.S., approximately $6,800 (84 percent) went to cover personal health care services and products. About half of the U.S. population accounted for only 3.1 percent of all expenditures, the report says. But 10 percent of the population is responsible for 63.6 percent of all health spending.

The top 5 percent of the population accounted for 47.5 percent of all spending, and the top 1 percent accounted for 20.2 percent. Not surprisingly, adults 55 and older made up a larger proportion of the high-spending group, while younger people tended to be in the lower spending group.