Research Spotlight - A Reconciliation of Health Care Expenditures in the National Health Expenditures Accounts and in Gross Domestic Product

摘要

THE SIZE and scope of the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act highlights the importance of health care spending to our economy. Understanding and' accounting for health care spending in a comprehensive and consistent way continues to be of paramount importance to researchers, policymakers, and business leaders. Much of this attention results from the dramatic increase in the share of the economy devoted to health care over the past half-century, from 5.2 percent in 1960 to 16.2 percent in 2008, as well as the expectation that the share will increase to more than 19 percent by 2019. To gain insights into the consumption of medical goods and services, the financing of these purchases, and the share of our nation's economic output that is devoted to health care spending, it is important to understand and reconcile different, widely cited estimates of health care expenditures.