The estimated healthcare spending per person stood at about US$14,423 in 2023 and US$15,074 in 2024. — Reuters
WASHINGTON: Healthcare spending in the United States is projected to have risen 7.5% in 2023 to US$4.8 trillion, according to federal data, outpacing the projected annual gross domestic product growth rate of 6.1%.
Spending on Medicaid and private health insurance drove the growth, with the insured share of the population surging to a historic high of 93%, data from the US Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) showed.
The number of insured individuals largely grew due to record high enrollment in Medicaid, with 91.2 million people being covered under the federal and state health programme for the poor in 2023.
Medicare spending is projected to have grown by 8.4% to over US$1 trillion and the Medicaid by 5.7% to US$852bil. Spending on private health insurance is projected to have grown by 1.1% to US$1.4 trillion.
The estimated healthcare spending per person stood at about US$14,423 in 2023 and US$15,074 in 2024.
National health spending is expected to grow by 5.2% in 2024, although Medicaid enrollment is set to decline by 11.2% when over 10 million people lose coverage now that pandemic response measures guaranteeing continuous enrollment have expired. — Reuters
