Healthcare spending in US was at a 20-year high in 2020, study says

(CNN) – Money spent on healthcare in the U.S. hit a 20-year high in 2020, and COVID-19 is to blame.

As the pandemic began to unfold, national health spending grew nearly 10% while gross domestic product went down more than 2%.

That means healthcare that year took up nearly 20% of total spending.

The numbers are from a new study just published in the journal Health Affairs.

There is some good news, but it’s really more of an assumption: As the public health emergency is wrapping up, the country will see more stable health spending trends in 2024.

That depends on the assumption that the pandemic caused by a virus that has evolved and surprised the country at every turn will soon end.

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