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The National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation Studies Health Spending

"Total spending on health care in the U.S. accounted for almost 18 percent of GDP in 2010 -- about 50 percent higher than in the next closest comparable developed countries -- and is projected to reach nearly 20 percent in the next decade. ... By 2010, the most recent year of data now available, spending had reached $2.594 trillion, or more than $8,400 for each person in the country."

The Concentration of Health Care Spending

"Spending for health care in the U.S. is highly concentrated among a small subset of Americans. Just 5 percent of the population accounted for nearly half of all health care spending in 2009. Understanding these high-spenders is vital for developing strategies to reduce overall spending growth. [This data brief describes] the characteristics and health conditions of the highest spenders, the persistence of high spending patterns over time, the challenges in targeting the most expensive cases for better care management, and the implications of concentrated spending for risk-based payment and insurance market reform."

Health Care Spending Remains Concentrated on Small Set of Expensive Illnessess

"Spending for health care in the U.S. is highly concentrated among a small subset of Americans. Just 5 percent of the population accounted for nearly half of all health care spending in 2009. Understanding these high-spenders is vital for developing strategies to reduce overall spending growth."

Is Health Care Shoppable?

"The fact that patients struggle to shop in this favorable setting makes it unlikely that greater cost sharing and price transparency will lead them to shop for more complex services. A more promising avenue may be to harness the power exerted by referring physicians and help them to help their patients select better value providers."

U.S. Health Care Spending: The Big Picture (PDF)

"This data brief pulls together the most current data available from multiple sources to provide an overview of national health spending. The brief covers: trends in health spending growth and the problem of excess growth, the sectors driving increased spending, the growth in public versus private spending, and changes in consumer out-of-pocket spending."

50% of Health Care Dollars Spent on 5% of Americans

"A new issue brief from the National Institute of Health Care Management ... showed that in 2009 half the population -- fully 150 million people -- spent an average of just $236 per person on health care. That was a paltry $36 billion for the entire group out of $1.3 trillion in personal health care expenditures. On the other side of the use spectrum, however, just five percent of the population -- about 30 million people -- spent a whopping $623 billion or about half of all personal health care expenditures. That came to nearly $41,000 per patient."

High Deductibles May Encourage Smarter Patient Decisions About Low-Value Care Use

"Over the three years after a firm began offering a health plan with a deductible of at least $500, its spending for a set of 24 low-value outpatient services fell by an average of 13.7% compared to firms that never offered such a plan.... The percent reductions in spending were significantly larger for low-value services than for all outpatient care and all laboratory services, suggesting some ability and willingness of patients to selectively curtail low-value care."

Spending for Private Health Insurance in the United States (PDF)

"Employees have been required to shoulder an increasing portion of rising premiums through their explicit contributions, hitting 27 percent in 2011. They are also increasingly likely to face a deductible, and average deductible levels have been rising quickly.... Average premiums in the non-group market are lower than in the employer-based market and have been increasing a little less rapidly. Deductibles, on the other hand, are considerably higher in the non-group market, consistent with a growing prevalence of plans eligible for health savings accounts."

Improving Payment Accuracy in Health Insurance Marketplaces

"Despite real differences in how the three study countries administer risk adjustments, ... even the sophisticated risk adjustment methods they currently use fail to accurately compensate health plans for the risks represented by specific enrollees.... This study demonstrated the important payment improvements that can be achieved across the board by reinsuring against losses for the small portion of enrollees whose care is grossly undercompensated and suggests this reinsurance will not weaken plan incentives to effectively manage care for these very high cost patients."

Health Entitlement Spending: A Story in Six Charts

"The recent slowdown in health spending growth may strengthen the impulse on some fronts to delay action, but long-term projections leave little doubt that federal health spending will continue to be a major contributor to our fiscal woes. This chart story pulls together essential facts on how much the federal government is spending on mandatory health care programs, how that spending affects the budget, and the hard spending and revenue trade-offs necessary to improve our fiscal outlook."