Federal spending is going up this year, mostly due to increases in health spending, according to recently released projections by the Congressional Budget Office.
The nonpartisan agency projects that mandatory federal outlays will rise by $168 billion in 2016 –– or 6 percent –– and that $104 billion of that will come from increased spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and subsidies to those purchasing insurance on the Obamacare exchanges. That amounts to an 11 percent increase in federal health spending over the previous year.
The CBO is quick to mention, however, that part of the projected increase is due to a shifting of certain Medicare payments from 2017 to 2016. If not for that, health care spending will only rise by $80 billion, or 8.6 percent.
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.