U.S. health expenditure as percent of GDP 1960-2022

In 2022, U.S. national health expenditure as a share of its gross domestic product (GDP) reached 17.3 percent, this was a decrease on the previous year. The United States has the highest health spending based on GDP share among developed countries. Both public and private health spending in the U.S. is much higher than other developed countries. Why the U.S. pays so much moreWhile private health spending in Canada stays at around three percent and in Germany under two percent of the gross domestic product, it is nearly nine percent in the United States. Another reason for high costs can be found in physicians’ salaries, which are much higher in the U.S. than in other wealthy countries. A general practitioner in the U.S. earns nearly twice as much as the average physician in other high-income countries. Additionally, medicine spending per capita is also significantly higher in the United States. Finally, inflated health care administration costs are another of the predominant factors which make health care spending in the U.S. out of proportion. It is important to state that Americans do not pay more because they have a higher health care utilization, but mainly because of higher prices. Expected developmentsBy 2031, it is expected that health care spending in the U.S. will reach nearly one fifth of the nation’s gross domestic product. Or in dollar-terms, health care expenditures will accumulate to about seven trillion U.S. dollars in total.

于2022年，美国国民健康支出占其国内生产总值（GDP）的比重达到了17.3%，较上一年有所下降。美国在发达国家中，基于GDP比重的健康支出位居首位。无论是公共还是私人健康支出，美国的支出均远高于其他发达国家。为何美国的医疗支出如此之高，尽管在加拿大私人健康支出占国内生产总值的比重约为3%，在德国则不足2%，而在美国这一比例则高达近9%。高昂成本之另一原因可追溯至医生薪酬，美国的医生薪酬远高于其他富裕国家。在美国，一般开业医师的收入几乎是其他高收入国家平均医师收入的两倍。此外，美国的人均药品支出也显著较高。最终，膨胀的医疗管理成本亦是导致美国医疗支出不成比例的主要因素之一。值得注意的是，美国人支付更多并非因为其医疗保健利用率更高，而主要是因为价格更高。预期发展至2031年，预计美国的医疗保健支出将接近国家国内生产总值的五分之一。或者用美元计算，医疗保健总支出将达到约70万亿美元。