Understanding U.S. Health Care Spending

Julie Schoenman, PhD, NIHCM Foundation; Nancy Chockley, MBA

Updated charts using the latest data are available here.

In this data brief we examine why we spend more than $8,000 per person on health care and the factors driving spending growth. Our analyses document the extreme concentration of expenditures, with just 5 percent of the population responsible for almost half of all spending, and demonstrate the importance of rising spending for hospital and physician services as the primary drivers of expenditure growth.