US Govt Health Spending Seen Hitting $1.8 Trillion

Kudos, fatsos.

U.S. government spending for Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare programs will more than double over the next decade to $1.8 trillion, or 7.3% of the country's total economic output, congressional researchers said on Tuesday.

In its annual budget and economic outlook, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that even under its most conservative projections, healthcare spending would rise by 8% a year from 2012 to 2022, mainly as a result of an aging U.S. population and rising treatment costs. It will continue to be a key driver of the U.S. budget deficit.

It is not the aging of the population.

It is the aging of a population that is sicker and sicker because it is fatter and fatter.

And the costs associated with treating chronic illnesses for longer and longer.