"Medicare spending per beneficiary in fiscal year 2012 rose by only 0.4 percent -- well below the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Over the 2010-2012 period, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate, while GDP per capita grew by 3.2 percent a year. The trustees' new projections may assume that some of this slowdown in cost growth will continue, as the [CBO] has done."  MORE >>