Actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States reported on Wednesday that health care expenditures in the United States increased by 9.7% to $4.1 trillion last year, mainly due to federal COVID-19 relief expenditures.

This jump marked the largest increase in health spending since 2002 More than 5% higher Compared with 2019.Most of the growth comes from federal expenditures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Provider relief fund And payroll protection plan loans, according to Report CMS Actuary’s Office published on Health Affairs.

Health expenditure accounts for 19.7% of GDP. CMS statistician Micah Hartman said at a press conference that the surge in this share last year was the largest annual increase in agency actuaries in history.

However, if expenditures related to public health and related federal programs are not included, national health expenditures only increased by 1.9%, mainly because many people reduced their use of health care during the beginning of the pandemic.

Hospitals, doctors, and prescription drug expenditures have all increased. Hospital expenditures amounted to US$1.3 trillion, accounting for 31% of all healthcare expenditures, and its growth was similar to 2019. Last year, this increase was entirely attributable to federal supplementary funding related to the pandemic. CMS found that while out-of-pocket expenses for hospital care fell by 12.6%, prices rose by 3.2%, compared with 2% in 2019.

federal health care expenditure Increase 36% drive go through Listed healthy and Medicaid expenditure.
The Provider Relief Fund made up for $121.6 billion in federal medical expenses and Salary Protection Program Loan US$53.3 billion. Nearly US$87 billion went to hospitals, and doctors, clinical services, and nursing homes received additional US$51.5 billion and US$20.1 billion, respectively.

The growth of medical insurance expenditure slowed from 6.9% in 2019 to 3.5% in 2020. The total medical insurance expenditure is US$829.5 billion, accounting for 20% of the national health care expenditure. The medical insurance enrollment rate slowed to 2%.