The Government Accountability Office publicly released a report September 19 entitled "Urban Hospitals: Factors Contributing to Selected Hospital Closures and Related Changes in Available Health Care Services."As noted in GAO's cover letter:"Hospitals play a critical role in delivering health care services to their communities. In 2022, nearly 30 million patients were admitted to approximately 4,500 general acute care hospitals nationally, and spending on hospital services accounted for about $1.38 trillion, nearly one-third of the $4.5 trillion in total health care spending in the U.S.[1] As of 2022, approximately half of U.S. general acute care hospitals were located in an urban area."There…
US Healthcare Spending in 2022: $4.5 Trillion
January 2, 2024 According to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (accessed January 2, 2024): "US health care spending grew 4.1 percent to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022, faster than the increase of 3.2 percent in 2021 but much slower than the rate of 10.6 percent in 2020. The growth in 2022 reflected strong growth in Medicaid and private health insurance spending that was somewhat offset by continued declines in supplemental funding by the federal government associated with the COVID-19 pandemic."In a related article published in the journal Health Affairs ("National Health Expenditure Accounts Team. National Health Care…
Total National Health Expenditures in the US
"NHE [National Health Expenditures] increased by 3.9 percent in 2017 to $3.5 trillion or $10,739 per capita. This growth rate is lower than what was observed in 2016 (4.8 percent) and 2015 (5.8 percent). After a period of relatively fast growth in 2014 and 2015 during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 2017 was characterized by slower growth that continued from 2016. In fact, growth in 2017 was similar to the 3.7 percent average annual rate of the 5-year period ending in 2013. These growth rates are the lowest since the early 1960s when health spending was first…