New Report: Health Care Spending Nationwide is $3.5 Trillion

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Jodi Boyne

The United States spent $3.5 trillion on health care across all payors and out-of-pocket costs, according to the new National Health Expenditure (NHE) report.

In keeping with historical trends, hospital care (33 percent), physician services (20 percent) and retail prescription drugs (10 percent) make up the largest types of health care spending and accounted for more than three in five dollars spent on health care in 2017. 

In 2017, total spending for nursing homes and life plan communities (which are combined for the purposes of this report) reached $166.3 billion, home health care accounted for $97 billion or 3 percent of total national health care spending, and home and community-based services (which is combined with other services such as ambulance and school health for this report) accounted for $183 billion. In HCBS, Medicaid was the largest payer source at $106 billion. 

For more specific information on aging services spending, see NHE Report – Aging Services.