Facts About Health Spending

America spends more than any other country on health care, and this spending rises every year. So here's a breakdown of our National Health Expenditure (NHE).

• NHE grew 6.1% to $2.2 trillion in 2007, or $7,421 per person, and accounted for 16.2% of Gross Domestic Product.
• Medicare spending grew 7.2% to $431 billion in 2007, or 19 percent of total NHE.
• Medicaid spending grew 6.4% to $329 billion in 2007, or 15 percent of total NHE.
• Private spending grew 5.8% to $1.2 trillion in 2007, or 54 percent of total NHE.
• Hospital expenditures grew 7.3% in 2007, up from 6.9% in 2006.
• Physician and clinical services expenditures increased 6.5% in 2007, the same rate of growth as in 2006.
• Prescription drug spending increased 4.9% in 2007, a deceleration from the 8.6% growth in 2006.
• At the aggregate level in 2007, businesses (25 percent), households (31 percent), other private sponsors (4 percent), and governments (40 percent) paid for about the same share of health services and supplies as they did in 2006.

Many people claim we need a larger government presence in health care to control costs, but the government programs of Medicare and Medicaid already account for 34% of all health spending, and costs continue to spiral out of control. In fact, spending by the government increases significantly faster than private spending.

We already have a third of our health care industry supported by the government, how much more do we need before we accept that more government is not the answer?