According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the United States spent more than $2.5 trillion on health care last year, which is about $8,160 per resident. That accounts for 17.6 percent of the GDP.
This is significantly higher than the spending in most other countries. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development shows U.S. health spending in 2006 at 15.3 percent of GDP, while Canada was at 10 percent; France, 11 percent; Germany, 10.6 percent; Japan, 8.1 percent; and the United Kingdom, 8.4 percent. Even Switzerland, the nation with the second-highest percentage of GDP spent on health care, fell far behind the United States, with only 11.3 percent.
But even though we're spending more on medical expenses than any other country, our care still costs more than the majority of Americans can afford. A recent health tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of Americans have delayed some form of care because of cost. Measures they have taken the following:
- Thirty-four percent of respondents said they had relied on home remedies or over-the-counter drugs instead of seeing a doctor.
- Another 34 percent had skipped a dental checkup.
- Thirty percent delayed or skipped health care they needed.
- If they did see a doctor, they may not have followed orders: Twenty-six percent didn't fill a prescription because of its cost, and 22 percent skipped a recommended medical treatment or test.
- In order to conserve medicine, 17 percent cut pills in half or took smaller doses than prescribed.
- Six percent of people had problem obtaining mental health care.
The amount that people pay out-of-pocket for health care depends on several factors, including the quality of their health insurance (if any) and the type and amount of services they use. For people with health care expenses, the average share of total health care costs that are paid out-of-pocket was 33 percent in 2006. Because many insurance plans have limits on out-of-pocket expenses, people with high total spending have relatively low out-of-pocket shares – e.g., the 1 percent of people with the highest health spending in 2006 (total costs more than $41,580) paid an average of 7 percent of their costs out-of-pocket.
