American Health Care Spending
At 16%, Americans spend a relatively large portion of their GDP on health care, compared to other members of the United Nations. This trend does not seem to be lessening, and in fact estimates from the Health and Human Services Department predict that it will continue to rise. The biggest expenditure is on hospital care, a substantial 10% more than services rendered by physicians, which ranks second.
The government is spending a lot of its finances on its citizens. Indeed, in 2007 the figure for each American was a staggering $7,439. This was an increase of $413 from the previous year. However, one finding showed that some of these increases could be put down to technological advances which have made more health care available and accessible. Another factor could be that Americans are continuing to take more prescription drugs.
Despite these figures it appears that US citizens seem to make less use of health care services than other countries. So while spending is higher, utilization is not which suggests some level of inefficiency.
