Healthcare is a major part of the U.S. economy and an everyday source of care, employment, and household spending. In 2024, national health expenditures reached $5.3 trillion, equal to 18.0% of gross domestic product (GDP), while 90.3% of adults had a usual source of health care. The statistics below describe the industry’s financing, facilities, workforce, access, practice structure, and international care patterns across clearly identified measurement periods.
Table of contents
- U.S. healthcare spending
- Who pays for care
- Hospitals and care capacity
- Access to usual care
- Healthcare employment and pay
- Physician practice structure
- International consultations and quality
U.S. healthcare spending
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported $5.3 trillion in U.S. national health expenditures in 2024. Spending represented 18.0% of GDP, and national health spending per person was $15,474. CMS projected average annual national health expenditure growth of 5.8% from 2024 through 2033, compared with projected average GDP growth of 4.3% over the same period. On that projection, health spending’s share of GDP would rise from 17.6% in 2023 to 20.3% in 2033. CMS also projected 2024 national health expenditure growth at 8.2%.
Major payer categories grew at different rates in 2024. Medicare spending grew 7.8% to $1,118.0 billion, while Medicaid spending grew 6.6% to $931.7 billion. Private health insurance spending grew 8.8% to $1,644.6 billion. Out-of-pocket spending grew 5.9% to $556.6 billion. CMS reported that spending on other third-party payers, public health activity, and programs declined 7.0% to $590.5 billion.
Service categories also show where healthcare dollars were concentrated. Hospital expenditures grew 8.9% to $1,634.7 billion in 2024. Physician and clinical services expenditures grew 8.1% to $1,109.7 billion, while prescription drug spending increased 7.9% to $467.0 billion. These are spending totals and growth rates reported by CMS in its National Health Expenditure Fact Sheet; they should not be read as estimates of an individual household’s bill.
CMS projected that 92.1% of the U.S. population would be insured in 2024. The agency projected Medicaid enrollment would decline 7.9% to 84.5 million in 2024, and direct-purchase enrollment was expected to decline by 4.7 million in 2026, or 12.3%.
Who pays for care
The 2024 financing breakdown from the CMS National Health Expenditure Fact Sheet assigns the largest sponsoring share to the federal government. The federal government sponsored 31% of total U.S. health spending, while households sponsored 28%. Private business sponsored 18%, state and local governments sponsored 16%, and other private revenues sponsored 6%.
The distribution of spending varies substantially by age and sex. In 2020, per-person personal health care spending was $22,356 for people age 65 and older, $9,154 for working-age people, and $4,217 for children. Children were about 23% of the population but accounted for about 10% of all personal health care spending. Older adults were about 17% of the population and accounted for about 37% of all personal health care spending.
Per-person spending for females was $10,887 in 2020, compared with $9,554 for males. These figures describe personal health care spending in that measurement year, rather than total national health expenditures in 2024.
Geographic variation was also wide in 2020. Per-capita personal health care spending ranged from $7,522 in Utah to $14,007 in New York. New York’s per-capita spending was 37% above the national average, while Utah’s was about 26% below the national average. Among Census regions listed by CMS, per-capita personal health care spending was $12,728 in New England, $12,577 in the Mideast, $8,497 in the Rocky Mountain region, and $8,587 in the Southwest.
From 2014 to 2020, New York had the highest annual growth in NHE per-capita personal health care spending at 6.1% per year. Wisconsin had the lowest, at 3.0% per year.
Hospitals and care capacity
The American Hospital Association (AHA) Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals 2026 counted 6,100 hospitals in the United States. U.S. community hospitals totaled 5,121, including 2,984 nongovernment not-for-profit community hospitals, 1,224 investor-owned for-profit community hospitals, and 913 state and local government community hospitals. The same AHA source counted 210 federal government hospitals and 656 nonfederal psychiatric hospitals.
The AHA Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals 2024 reported 916,752 staffed hospital beds in all U.S. hospitals. It recorded 33,679,935 total admissions in all U.S. hospitals, including 31,555,807 admissions in community hospitals. The hospital count, staffed-bed count, and admissions figures come from different AHA Fast Facts editions, so their publication periods should be kept distinct.
| Hospital measure | Reported figure | AHA source edition |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitals in the United States | 6,100 | Fast Facts 2026 |
| Community hospitals | 5,121 | Fast Facts 2026 |
| Staffed beds in all hospitals | 916,752 | Fast Facts 2024 |
| Admissions in all hospitals | 33,679,935 | Fast Facts 2024 |
| Admissions in community hospitals | 31,555,807 | Fast Facts 2024 |
Access to usual care
The CDC National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief 558 reported that 90.3% of adults had a source of usual health care in 2024. The rate was 93.3% for women and 87.1% for men. By age, 83.7% of adults ages 18 to 34 had a source of usual care, compared with 97.5% of adults age 65 and older.
Most adults who had a usual source of care used a doctor’s office or health center: 77.5% reported that setting in 2024. Other reported sources included an urgent care center or a clinic in a drug store or grocery store at 8.6%, a VA medical center or VA outpatient clinic at 1.5%, and a hospital emergency room at 1.7%.
The CDC FastStats: Access to Health Care reported that 7.3% of adults failed to obtain needed medical care because of cost in 2024. The same source reported that 88.6% of adults had a usual place to go for medical care. Together, these measures distinguish having a place for care from being able to obtain needed services when cost is a barrier.
Healthcare employment and pay
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projected that healthcare practitioners and technical occupations would reach 10,794.4 thousand jobs in 2034, up from 10,067.5 thousand in 2024. The projected increase was 726.9 thousand jobs, or 7.2%. The 2024 median annual wage for this occupational group was $83,090.
Healthcare support occupations were projected to reach 8,971.1 thousand jobs in 2034, up from 7,982.8 thousand in 2024. BLS projected 988.3 thousand additional jobs and 12.4% growth. The 2024 median annual wage for healthcare support occupations was $37,180.
The BLS Industry at a Glance profile reported 23,808.5 thousand employees in health care and social assistance in April 2026, including 20,943.8 thousand production and nonsupervisory employees. The industry’s unemployment rate was 2.6%, with 1,321 thousand job openings, 619 thousand hires, and 591 thousand separations in that month. Average hourly earnings were $36.35 in March 2026, and average weekly hours were 32.7.
Selected occupations illustrate the range of roles and pay in 2025:
- Home health aides numbered 4,199,700 and had a median hourly wage of $17.18 and median annual wage of $35,740.
- Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses numbered 560,880 and had a median hourly wage of $30.82 and median annual wage of $64,100.
- Medical and health services managers numbered 465,700 and had a median hourly wage of $56.15 and median annual wage of $116,800.
In 2025, union members represented 6.8% of wage and salary workers in health care and social assistance, while workers represented by unions accounted for 8.0%.
BLS reported that private-industry health care workers had access to health care benefits in 76% of cases in 2025. Paid vacation was available to 85%, paid sick leave to 89%, and retirement benefit plans to 74%. Defined benefit plans were available to 13%, and defined contribution plans to 72%.
For private-industry health care in the fourth quarter of 2025, total compensation was $48.43 per hour worked. Wages and salaries accounted for $34.25, total benefits for $14.18, insurance benefits for $3.61, and paid leave benefits for $4.05. The private-industry producer price index for health care and social assistance was 152.039 in April 2026, and private-industry health care and social assistance establishments numbered 2,153,384 in the third quarter of 2025.
Physician practice structure
The American Medical Association’s 2024 private-practice data show that private practice remained the largest single practice category, accounting for 42.2% of physicians. Hospital-owned practices accounted for 34.5%, physicians directly employed by or contracted with a hospital accounted for 12.2%, and private-equity-owned practices accounted for 6.5%.
The share in private practice varied by specialty. Ophthalmology had the highest listed share at 70.4%, followed by orthopaedic surgery at 54.0%, radiology at 46.9%, anesthesiology at 46.4%, and obstetrics and gynecology at 46.3%.
Practice size and structure changed between 2012 and 2024. Physicians in practices with 10 or fewer physicians fell to 47.4% in 2024 from 61.4% in 2012. Physicians in practices with 50 or more physicians rose to 18.3% from 12.2% over the same comparison. Physicians in single-specialty practices fell to 37.2% in 2024 from 45.4% in 2012, while physicians in multispecialty practices rose to 27.8% in 2024.
International consultations and quality
The OECD Health at a Glance 2023 report recorded an average of 6 in-person doctor consultations per person per year across OECD countries in 2021. Mexico, Costa Rica, Sweden, Chile, and Greece each recorded fewer than 3 in-person consultations per person, while Korea recorded more than 15.
Teleconsultations made up 19% of all doctor consultations on average across 20 OECD countries in 2021. The share exceeded 30% in Spain, Portugal, Estonia, and Denmark. These are country-comparison measures from 2021 and do not describe current U.S. telehealth use.
The OECD report also found that 57% of hospital physicians and nurses perceived staff levels and work pace to be unsafe. Avoidable hospital admissions fell in most OECD countries over the preceding decade, and 30-day mortality rates after heart attack or stroke were lower in almost every OECD country than 10 years earlier.
Patient-reported outcomes added another view of care quality. In OECD data, average quality of life 6 to 12 months after hip surgery reached a score equivalent to 80% or higher. Before surgery, the average quality-of-life scores had been equivalent to 35% to 50%.