9 U.S. Health Spending Projections We All Should Know

Everyone involved with insurance and retirement planning should know that a dollar buys more than a penny, that tax revenue helps fund government operations, and that "just print more money" is bad way of handling the federal budget deficit. They should also have a rough idea of the size of the U.S. health care and U.S. health finance systems, and how spending on various types of health care services and health finance programs might grow. Because these numbers are so large, they have a big effect on everything you and your clients see and touch, including the stock market, the bond market, annuity performance totals, and the cost of phones, sofas and sofa tables. Actuaries with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have just given a detailed look at U.S. health care economics in their latest national health expenditure forecast tables. The latest final figures are for 2020; even the 2021 figures are still projections. The last year in the projections is 2030. The actuaries estimate that the United States will spend a total of $4.5 trillion, or 18.2% of its $25 trillion gross domestic product, on health care goods and services this year. In 2030, if the actuaries are correct, U.S. 2030 national health expenditures could rise to $6.8 trillion, or 19.6% of the country's projected $35 trillion 2030 GDP, as a result of the aging of the population, increases in health care prices, and the introduction of new health care technology. For more about overall national health expenditures, and a look at eight other categories of spending, see the gallery above. (Image: Andrii Vodolazhskyi/Shutterstock)