Health Care Spending as Share of GDP Under Obama: One Year Makes a Difference

Folks looking at the NYT charts comparing the nation's performance by various measures under President Bush and President Obama may be misled by the health care chart. The chart shows health care spending as a share of GDP rising from 14.0 percent in 2001 to 16.3 percent in 2008, which it describes as the "Bush years." It shows a further increase to 18.1 percent in 2016, which are the "Obama years." By this measure we see a modest slowing of health care cost growth as a share of GDP, with a r...