How much does the US spend per capita on healthcare?

Asked by: Nikolas Grady  |  Last update: August 31, 2023
Score: 5/5 (67 votes)

The United States has one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world. In 2021, U.S. healthcare spending reached $4.3 trillion, which averages to about $12,900 per person. By comparison, the average cost of healthcare per person in other wealthy countries is only about half as much.

Does the US spend the most on healthcare per capita?

In 2022, the United States spent an estimated $12,555 per person on healthcare — the highest healthcare costs per capita across the OECD countries.

How much does the US spend on healthcare overall?

Health spending in the U.S. increased by 2.7% in 2021 to $4.3 trillion or $12,914 per capita. This growth rate is substantially lower than 2020 (10.3% percent).

How much does the US spend on healthcare per capita OECD?

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other OECD country, both as a proportion of GDP (16.9%) and per person (USD 10 586).

What percent of the US economy is spent on healthcare?

Healthcare spending in the United States totaled 18.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in their most recent data update.

Why Does The US Spend More Per Capita On Healthcare Than Every Other Country In The World?

20 related questions found

What does the US rank in health care?

Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall compared with six other industrialized countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—on measures of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and the ability to lead long, healthy, ...

What is the largest healthcare expenditure in the US?

In 2019, hospital care spending (37.2%) made up the largest share of personal health care expenditures, followed by spending on physician and clinical services (24.1%), prescription drugs (11.5%), nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities (5.4%), dental services (4.5%), and home health care ( ...

Why does the US spend the most on healthcare?

There are many factors that contribute to the high cost of healthcare in the country. These include wasteful systems, rising drug costs, medical professional salaries, profit-driven healthcare centers, the type of medical practices, and health-related pricing.

How much does China spend on healthcare?

In 2021, the total expenditure on health care in China reached over 7.7 trillion yuan. That figure included government spending, collective spending, and private out-of-pocket spending on health care.

Why is US healthcare per capita so high?

There are many possible reasons for that increase in healthcare prices: The introduction of new, innovative healthcare technology can lead to better, more expensive procedures and products. The complexity of the U.S. healthcare system can lead to administrative waste in the insurance and provider payment systems.

Is the US healthcare system the most expensive in the world?

As our chart illustrates, U.S. per-capita healthcare spending (including public and private as well as compulsory and voluntary spending) is higher than anywhere else in the world, with second-placed Germany trailing quite far behind. On average, healthcare costs in the U.S. amounted up to $12,318 per person in 2021.

What country spends the least on healthcare?

Somalia spends the least, only $33 per person per year for health. That's a really, really small number. And those resources don't get equitably distributed across the country. If the country averages $33 a year, you know there are many people that get even less, if not zero in health spending.

Does the US spend more on healthcare than any other country?

Health spending per person in the U.S. was $12,914 in 2021, which was over $5,000 more than any other high-income nation. The average amount spent on health per person in comparable countries ($6,125) is less than half of what the U.S. spends per person.

Should America have universal healthcare?

The American College of Physicians says that the United States needs a healthcare system that provides care for everyone, either through a universal health insurance system, such as the UK NHS, or through a pluralistic system that involves the government and private organisations.

Which country spends the most on healthcare as a percentage of its GDP?

Health expenditure as a percentage of GDP in select countries 2021. Among OECD member countries, the United States had the highest percentage of gross domestic product spent on health care in 2021. The U.S. spent nearly 18 percent of its GDP on health care services.

Does the US spend more on healthcare than the military?

Healthcare vs military spending as a percentage of GDP in select countries in 2021. In 2021, the U.S. government spent more on healthcare than any other country, at 17.8 percent of GDP. In the same year, U.S. military expenditure was 3.46 percent of GDP.

Who has free healthcare in the world?

However, Brazil is the only country in the world that offers free healthcare for all its citizens. Also, Norway is the first country in the world to implement a free healthcare policy as far back as 1912.

Is the US healthcare system operating as a monopoly?

An industry of monopolies

De facto monopolies abound in almost every healthcare sector: Hospitals and health systems, drug and device manufacturers, and doctors backed by private equity. The result is that U.S. healthcare has become a conglomerate of monopolies.

Who pays the most for healthcare?

The U.S. continues to spend the most on healthcare per person, even though outcomes and quality of care is not often ranked highest.

What is the #1 healthcare in the world?

Healthcare System Performance Ranking

Key findings: “The top-performing countries overall are Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care.

Who has better healthcare than America?

Health Care System Performance Rankings

The U.S. ranks #11 — last. Exhibit 2 shows the extent to which the U.S. is an outlier: its performance falls well below the average of the other countries and far below the two countries ranked directly above it, Switzerland and Canada.

How is the US healthcare system compared to Europe?

Compared to European countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, and France, the U.S. has the highest rate of medical, medication, and lab errors; and 16% of patients in the U.S. visited the ER for a non-emergency issue in 2017, compared to only 5% in Germany and 9% in Switzerland.

How much of America's GDP is spent on military?

Although the United States spends more on defense than any other country, the Congressional Budget Office projects that defense spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) will decline over the next 10 years — from 3.1 percent of GDP in 2023 to 2.8 percent in 2033.

What percent of US GDP is spent on education?

Expenditure on Education as a % of GDP in the United States (2010 - 2020) The expenditure on education as a % of GDP in the US was 6.4% in 2020, an increase of 3.8% from the previous year. Between 2010-2020, the expenditure on education as a % of GDP in the United States decreased by 16.7%.