Money: Who Gets Healthcare at What Cost
5% of Americans Made Up 50% of U.S. Healthcare Spending And the top 1%? They made up one fifth of medical expenditures. from The Atlantic "When it comes to America's spiraling health care costs, the country's problems begin with the 5%. In 2008 and 2009, 5% of Americans were responsible for nearly half of the country's medical spending. Of course, healthcare has its own 1% crisis. In 2009, the top 1% of patients accounted for 21.8% of expenditures. The figures are from a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services , which examined how different U.S. demographics contributed to medical costs. It looked at the $1.26 trillion spent by civilian, non-institutionalized Americans each year on health care. The top 5% of spenders paid an annual average of $35,829 in doctors' bills. By comparison, the bottom half paid an average $232 and made up about 3% of total costs. Aside from the fact that such a tiny fraction of the country was responsible for so much ...