Posted on August 29, 2011 15:13
Categories: Treatment and Recovery
Topics: Spending
On June 24, the non-profit National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation released a data brief, Understanding U.S. Health Care Spending, analyzing total U.S. health care spending. Examining data from the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEAs) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the brief notes that annual health care spending reached $2.5 trillion in 2009, or 17.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The brief also notes that spending increased 29 percent between 2005 and 2009, averaging $8,100 per person in 2009. The Foundation found that costs are highly concentrated among a small number of high-cost patients, with approximately 5 percent of the population accounting for 47.5 percent of all spending, while 50 percent of the population accounts for only 3 percent of spending. The brief also notes that rising prices have played a larger role than increased utilization rates in driving recent cost growth.
From the report:
According to newly updated figures from the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA), the official estimates of health care spending in the United States, we spent nearly $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, reaching an all-time high of $8,086 per person. This per-capita spending represents an almost two-fold increase since 1997. Furthermore, due in large part to the decline in GDP as a result of the recession, total health care spending as a percent of GDP ticked up a full percentage point to reach 17.6 percent in 2009.
Full report: Understanding U.S. Health Care Spending (PDF | 820 KB) 
National Institute for Health Care Management. (2011). Understanding U.S. health care spending. Schoenman, Julie A. and Chockley, Nancy.
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