National health care spending grew 3.9 percent in February, according to a report from the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending.
Researchers said the growth signals a falling spending rate that returns it to the record low levels seen between 2009–2011.
Hospital care accounted for the bulk of the spending in February 2013 — $928 billion, representing 32 percent of total health spending.
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Physician and clinical services accounted for 19 percent of total health spending ($561 billion), while prescription drug spending accounted for 10 percent ($279 billion) and nursing home and home health spending combined were 8 percent of total spending ($233 billion).
The remaining balance was a combination of other expenditures, including dental services and personal health care.
Meanwhile, the health sector now accounts for nearly one in nine total U.S. jobs, a new all-time high at almost 11 percent, Altarum said.
Health spending has remained at about 18 percent of gross domestic product since mid-2009, Charles Roehrig, director of the Center for Sustainable Health Spending, said in a statement.
"Expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act should push these figures upward, but an improving economy will push it in the other direction as non-health spending and jobs accelerate," Roehrig said. "We look forward to tracking how these forces play out."
Altarum Institute is a nonprofit health care research and consulting organization.
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