National Healthcare Expenditures

Of the many different challenges facing American Healthcare, the rising cost of healthcare is the paramount problem in our system.  The exponential increase of the nation’s total healthcare expenditures over the past decades and the projected future trajectory of these costs will continue to have devastating consequences for the nation as a whole.  Importantly, figures regarding national healthcare expenditures include the costs associated with both public and private healthcare, meaning healthcare’s rising cost cannot be blamed on one form of the system but rather on the system as a whole.  The cold hard truth is that as a nation we lead the world in healthcare spending, yet only receive a system whose quality ranks 37th in the world (WHO 2007).  By examining the rise in healthcare costs to the nation as a whole, the trends we find are disturbing and without change, it only stands to get worse.

• In 2007, America’s healthcare spending alone would represent the world’s seventh largest economy.
• The United States currently spends more on healthcare than on food or housing. ²  
• By 2015, it is projected that US health spending will double from over $2 to nearly $4 trillion per year, going from 17% to 20% of GDP. ³