Gross domestic product (GDP) is one way to estimate the size of the economy. Looking at healthcare spending as a share of GDP can help shed light on how it is growing relative to spending and revenue in other areas. Since healthcare spending as a share of GDP is larger than it was in 1960, the amount of money used on healthcare has grown faster than the rest of the US economy.
For more information on where healthcare spending comes from and what it buys, look at national spending on healthcare goods and services.
In 2021, healthcare expenditures as a percent of GDP was 18.3%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points from 2020.
