Health care in the United States

Most people are covered through work: 53.5 in 100 had insurance through an employer in 2025. Medicare covered 20.1 in 100, mostly people 65 and over, and Medicaid 17.1.

The Census Bureau counts every kind of cover a person had at any time in the year, so one person can be counted under two kinds: most people 65 and over have Medicare and another plan too. In all, 92.1 in 100 people had some cover in 2025 and 7.9 in 100 had none all year; the last step is about them.

In the Bureau's words:

“people can be covered by more than one type of health insurance during the year”

Source: Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025, table 2, 2026, table 2 and table 1's notes, read 19 October 2026.

From the Current Population Survey, which asks people each spring about the year before. In people: 180.7 million through an employer, 67.9 million on Medicare, 57.8 million on Medicaid, 35.5 million bought directly, 9.3 million on TRICARE and 4.2 million in veterans' care, of 337.9 million. Bought directly includes plans bought on the government's Marketplace.

Source: Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025, table 2, 2026, table 2, read 19 October 2026.

Current spending on health, public and private, without investment in buildings and equipment, as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), the value of everything the country produces in a year, by the count of the World Health Organization (WHO), made with each country's own data: 16.69% for the United States in 2023, rounded here to one decimal. 2023 is the newest year the WHO has for every country on the dial, so every figure it is set against is the same year and the same count.

On the dial, "typical" means between the lowest quarter and the highest quarter of the 10 countries Dooram covers: from 8.8% to 11.6% of GDP. "Less than most" is below that, "more than most" above it.

Read on 21 October 2026 in the WHO's Global Health Observatory and again in the World Bank's copy of the same series; the two give the same figure for every country.

The country's own count, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' National Health Expenditure Accounts, is 18.0% of GDP for 2024 (the next card). It counts more than the WHO's does: research, and new buildings and equipment, too.

Sources: World Health Organization, Global Health Expenditure Database, through its Global Health Observatory and the World Bank's World Development Indicators, Global Health Expenditure Database, current health expenditure as a share of gross domestic product (GHED_CHEGDP_SHA2011), 2023 (the World Health Organization's health accounts, every country's share of its economy spent on health, 2023), GHED_CHEGDP_SHA2011; the World Bank's SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS, read 21 October 2026. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, tables 1 and 2, read 19 October 2026.

$5.3 trillion in 2024, 7.2% more than the year before: $15,474 for each person, and 18.0 of every 100 dollars the economy produced.

Everything spent on health in the country: care and medicines, the running of insurance and of public programmes, public health, research, and new hospitals and equipment. The next step shows each part.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, tables 1 and 2, read 19 October 2026.

An estimate the agency's actuaries make each year, for the calendar year: $5,278.6 billion in all. The amount for each person is the agency's own figure.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, table 1, read 19 October 2026.

The federal government paid 31.3%, households 27.6%, private businesses 18.3%, and state and local governments 16.3%.

Households pay their share of a work plan's premium, plans they buy themselves, Medicare premiums and payroll taxes, and what they pay at the doctor's or pharmacy. Businesses pay their share of their workers' premiums and their own Medicare payroll tax. Government pays for Medicare, Medicaid and its own staff's plans.

The agency counts who in the end bears the bill:

“the entity that is ultimately responsible for financing the health care bill”

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, highlights and table 5's notes, read 19 October 2026.

Three of the agency's tables, each the same total: who pays (by sponsor), which pool pays it out (by source of funds) and what it pays for (by type of expenditure). Nothing joins a band in one column to a band in the next, because the agency does not say which money paid for which care. The shares are Dooram's division of the agency's amounts; some bands are Dooram's sums of the agency's lines (nursing homes with care at home; dentists with other professionals; the running of insurance with that of government programmes). The agency's own rounded shares agree.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, tables 2, 3 and 5, read 19 October 2026.

Medicare took $996.7 billion and health $978.9 billion in fiscal 2025: 28.2% of the $7.0 trillion the federal government spent.

Money spent, not a plan: fiscal 2025 runs from October 2024 to September 2025. Medicare and health are two of the budget's functions; health holds the government's other health programmes. Social Security, $1,580.7 billion, was the largest single function.

The budget's historical tables, made later, give $996.7 billion and $978.5 billion of $7,011.1 billion: the same 28.2%. The share is Dooram's division of the Treasury's $1,975.6 billion by $7,010.0 billion.

Sources: Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Department of the Treasury, Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2025, table 9 (outlays by function, fiscal year 2025), table 9, read 19 October 2026. Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027, table 3.1, 2026, table 3.1, read 19 October 2026.

Prescription drugs are those bought at pharmacies and by mail; medicines given in hospital are inside hospital care. Other care and medical goods are care given in homes for the disabled, schools and workplaces, ambulances, over-the-counter medicines, glasses and other equipment. The 52.0% is Dooram's sum of the first two; the agency's own rounded shares are 31% and 21%.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, table 2 and the nation's health dollar, read 19 October 2026.

A worker with cover for themselves alone paid $1,817 of a $9,025 premium in 2025; for a family, $7,314 of $26,281. The employer paid the rest.

A premium is what an insurer is paid for a year's cover, whether or not care is used; on top, a person pays part of the bill at the doctor's or pharmacy. The spending is an average for everyone, young and old, not what any one person used.

A survey of private employers that offer health insurance: averages for each worker enrolled. The worker's share is what is taken from pay; the employer's share is the rest, $7,209 and $18,967 as the agency prints them.

Sources: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Insurance Component, 2025, national and state tables, 2026, national tables I.C.1, I.C.2, I.D.1 and I.D.2; state table X.C, read 19 October 2026. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, historical, 1960 to 2024, table 1, read 19 October 2026.

The agency's own percentages; the strips round them to whole tenths. The dollar amounts on the card before give the same shares: $1,817 of $9,025, and $7,314 of $26,281.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Insurance Component, 2025, national and state tables, 2026, national tables I.C.3 and I.D.3, read 19 October 2026.

26.7 million people, 7.9 in 100, had no health insurance at any time in 2025. Young adults were the most often uninsured; almost everyone 65 and over had cover.

“In 2025, 26.7 million people (7.9 percent) were uninsured for the entire year”

Among adults of working age, 19 to 64, 11.0 in 100 had no cover. Children can be covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, and people 65 and over by Medicare, which is why so few of them are uninsured.

Source: Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025, table 2, 2026, report text and table 2, read 19 October 2026.

Uninsured means no cover of any kind on any day of the year. In people: 4.4 million under 19, 4.5 million aged 19 to 25, and 0.6 million 65 and over.

Source: Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025, table 2, 2026, table 2, read 19 October 2026.