©WSJ 2009 

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance.  

The figures show how federal and state spending is taking a bigger role while Congress hesitates over a health-care overhaul. Over the next ten years, health spending is expected to balloon to $4.5 trillion.

Despite this, the government's health overhaul has stalled, Peter Landers reports. Government health programs are a growing burden on the federal budget, which is running annual deficits of more than $1 trillion, and rising health costs continue to batter private industry.  

By 2020, according to the new projections, about one in five dollars spent in the U.S. will go to health care, a proportion far beyond any other industrialized nation. Read more.