Drug spending raises U.S. healthcare tab

Seniors and the disabled using new Medicare drug cards fueled a 6.7 percent increase in health spending in 2006, according to a federal report. In most other areas of healthcare, there was a slowdown in spending, the report showed. While it still cost more to go to the hospital or doctor, the increase was not as great as in the previous year. The $2.1 trillion spent on healthcare in 2006 came to an average of $7,026 a person.