Healthcare Spending by the Numbers: New NHE Data

National Health Expenditures (NHE) data was recently released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for 2020. The data, which tabulates healthcare spending across several sectors, shows that overall healthcare spending in the U.S. jumped by 9.7% in 2020 to a total of $4.1 trillion, mostly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Prescription drug spending, which comprised 8.4% of total healthcare spending, did not experience such a spike.

According to Katie Koziara of PhRMA, “The latest facts on health care spending also show that total retail prescription drug spending grew at a modest 3.0% in 2020, below the previous year’s growth. The data, which also look at spending on other health sectors, further reiterate why policymakers need to look across the entire health care system when looking to lower health care spending.”

Read more and find more data by clicking here.

(Source: PhRMA, December 22^nd, 2021)