Health cost to double in decade

"National health-care spending will double to $4 trillion a year over the next decade, outpacing the growth of wages, inflation and the U.S. economy as a whole, according to new government projections released yesterday.By 2015, one in every five dollars spent in the United States will go toward medical costs.The sobering cost data reflect the effect of aging baby boomers, the cost of the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, declining rates of insurance coverage, and rising hospital costs.The projections estimate that collective public and private spending for health care will average about $12,320 a person in 2015, compared with $6,683 a person in 2005."