Health care expenditures in the United States increased only modestly in 2011, but expenditures now are nearly double what they were just over a decade ago, according to government research released Monday.

In 2011, total U.S. health care spending hit $2.701 trillion, or $8,680 per person. While this is a record, expenditures rose only 3.9% in 2011, unchanged from 2010 and 2009, according to statistics compiled by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and published in the journal Health Affairs.

Those annual percentage increases were the lowest in the 52 years that government researchers have been tracking and compiling such information.

Still, while spending grew modestly, health care expenditures remained at a record 17.9% of the gross domestic product in 2011, also unchanged from 2010 and 2009. In 2000, health care expenditures were 13.8% of GDP and totaled $1.377 trillion, while in 1990, health care expenditures totaled $724.3 billion and made up 12.5% of GDP.

Health insurance spending on benefits per enrollee rose just 3.2% in 2011, down sharply from 4.6% in 2010.

That slowdown in spending reflects a changing enrollment mix as, due to a new health care reform law requirement, more younger and generally healthier people gained coverage. In 2011, a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision kicked in that requires employers to extend coverage to employees' adult children up to age 26.

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In fact, enrollment in private health insurance plans increased by 1 million enrollees in 2011. That 0.5% increase — mostly due to the adult child coverage mandate — occurred after an enrollment decline of 11.2 million between 2007 and 2010.

Continuing a recent trend, enrollment in consumer-driven health care plans continued to rise, with 17% of covered workers enrolled in the plans in 2011, up from 8% in 2008. Enrollment in CDHPs has increased an average of 23% annually since 2008, according to the report.

The shift to CDHPs has played a role in holding down cost increases in private health plan spending between 2008 and 2011, the report said.