In the year 2000, it was reported that health care costs exceeded a. $1.3 trillion. c. $130 trillion. b. $13 trillion. d. the national debt.

The right answer is in the year 2000, health care costs exceeded a. $1.3 trillion. To be more precise,   $1,369.7 billion dollars, source: National Health Expenditures Summary Including Share of GDP.  health care spending has become a larger and larger proportion of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. In 1960, the U.S. spent 5% of its GDP on health care. As of 2000, that proportion had grown to 14%, or nearly three times what it was forty years ago. This growth rate marks a profound change in the role health care plays in Americans’ lives. The good news about this shift is that it reflects the marked advances in health technologies that allow more people to live longer, healthier lives. On the other hand, rising costs for health services mean that our society must sacrifice an increasingly greater share of other goods and services in order to pay for health care.

b. sec, foreign relations