Healthcare Spending Per Person

8% Growth for a Long Time

Total spending on healthcare per person in the US has grown at 8% since 1960. That’s a change from $142 per person in 1960 to $13,488 in 2022.

To put this in perspective, the median household makes $64,240 in after-tax income with 2.5 people per household. These means that we are spending $33,720 per household on healthcare. The household may not be spending that much, but systemwide we are allocating about half of the median household’s income to healthcare.

At the current rate of growth, in 15 years, 100% of household income would be allocated to healthcare expenditures.

Bar chart showing the growth in US healthcares spending per person since 1960

Source: CMS