The growth of national health spending, which surged as millions of Americans gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), slowed last year, the Trump administration said on Thursday. Health spending in the United States totaled $3.5 trillion last year, up 3.9 percent from 2016, or about $10,740 a person. It accounted for 17.9 percent of the economy, officials said. But the rate of increase for the major categories — drugs, doctors and hospitals — was more modest than in recent years. For the first time in several years, health spending grew at about the same rate as the economy as a whole in 2017.. (Robert Pear, New York Times)