As I noted in an earlier post, health care spending soared by 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014 as President Obama‘s health care program went into effect, according to a report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That was the highest level since 1980 and it comes off a spike in health spending at the end of 2013. Here is a chart illustrating the recent spike in health care spending, comparing it to the relatively slow growth in health care costs over several years starting in the first quarter of 2009.

Note: the 9.9 percent figure represents quarterly growth on an annualized basis and is only a preliminary estimate by BEA that will be subject to revisions.