In the January 2017 issue of Health Affairs, Martin, et al. published the latest National Health Expenditure Account estimates in their article National Health Spending: Faster Growth in 2015 as Coverage Expands and Utilization Increases.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website, the National Health Expenditure Accounts “…are the official estimates of total health care spending in the United States. Dating back to 1960, the NHEA measures annual U.S. expenditures for health care goods and services, public health activities, government administration, the net cost of health insurance, and investment related to health care.” Additional definitions, along with the methodology behind calculating these estimates can be found here.
Some of the highlights include:
- Total health expenditure: $3.2 trillion
- Health consumption: $3.1 trillion
- Investment: $157.7 billion
- Per person expenditure: $9,990
- Percent of GDP: 17.8%
- Annual growth from 2014: 5.8
- Private health insurance: 7.2% growth from 2014
- Medicare: 4.5% growth from 2014
- Medicaid: 9.7% growth from 2014
References
Martin, A.B., Hartman, M., Washington, B., Catlin, A., and the National Health Expenditure Accounts Team (2017). National health spending: Faster growth in 2015 as coverage expands and utilization increases. Health Affairs, 36, 166-176.
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