Hospitals earn their keep as US healthcare spending hits $4.5T

Hospital care consumed $1.4 trillion in 2022. That figure accounted for 30% of the total U.S. healthcare spend, $4.5 trillion, more than any other single category of care delivery.

The hospital piece represented a 2.2% bump over 2021, which seems modest compared with 2021’s increase of 4.5% over 2020.

Physicians and clinical services were second by proportion, soaking up 20% of the overall healthcare spend at close to $885 billion.

The figures were released Wednesday in a fact sheet posted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

CMS’s actuarial office reports that hospitals’ slowed growth rate reflect a slowdown in spending by CMS and private payers as well as a decline in other private revenues.

Also contributing to the slowdown were stagnant hospital prices and a decline in hospital days and discharges.

At the same time, overall healthcare spending in 2022 rose 4.1% over 2021 to reach the $4.5 trillion mark.

CMS notes this rate was faster than 2021’s increase of 3.2% over 2020, but significantly slower than 2020’s 10.6%.

The growth in 2022 reflected “strong growth in Medicaid and private health insurance spending that was somewhat offset by continued declines in supplemental funding by the federal government associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” CMS reports.

Also of note in the newly released numbers:

• In 2022, the insured share of the population reached 92%—a historic high.
• Private health insurance enrollment increased by 2.9 million individuals and Medicaid enrollment increased by 6.1 million individuals.
• In 2022, 26.6 million individuals were uninsured, down from 28.5 million in 2021, a difference of 1.9 million individuals.

In addition, the share of GDP devoted to healthcare fell to 17.3% in 2022, lower than both the 18.2% share in 2021 and the highest share in the history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts of 19.5% in 2020.

For the rest of the key findings, click here.