The estimates were published in the journal Health Affairs on Wednesday.

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The projections are based on an assumption that the legislative status quo will prevail — an unlikely scenario given President Trump and Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

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The spending projections are similar to previous estimates, putting health care on track to make up about a fifth of the economy by 2025.

After several years of historically slow growth, health spending will pick up in part as medical prices increase, according to the study. Medical price inflation — the increase in the costs of doctors' visits, drugs and hospital care — has been at low levels, largely due to inflation overall being low after the recession and in part because of the expiration of a temporary payment increase to primary care providers in Medicaid, according to CMS economist Sean Keehan, who led the study.

The slower growth in 2016 was attributed to a variety of factors. Medicaid spending grew more slowly, and prescription drug spending, which grew 9 percent in 2015 due to expensive hepatitis C drugs, only increased 5 percent in 2016. That was in large part due to the slowing use of expensive drugs to treat hepatitis C.

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Looking forward to 2025, prescription drug spending was projected to grow at 6.4 percent per year, faster than overall health spending and faster than the economy is expected to grow. The researchers credited the trend to the increased spending on high-priced specialty drugs but noted that most of the drugs used will continue to be cheaper generic drugs.