This post examines the size of the different components that make up the total $2.6 Trillion National Healthcare Expenditures (NHE) of the USA. It also looks at the different growth rates of the components.

This is the third installment in our series on US healthcare costs. For background to this project, which is all about identifying fertile opportunity spaces resulting from runaway healthcare costs, see the introduction; the first installment; and second installment of the series.

Components of $2.6 Trillion US National Healthcare Expenditure (2010)

The chart above depicts the $2.6 Trillion of US National Healthcare Expenditures in 2010 by category (1). These top 5 categories comprise the majority of this expenditure (74% of the total):

• Hospital expenditures (31%);
• Physician and Clinical expenditures (20%);
• Prescription Drug expenditures (10%);
• Administration & total Net Cost of Health Insurance expenditures (7%); and
• Nursing Care Facilities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (5%).

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