US Health Care Spending Expected to Outpace Economic Growth Over Next Decade

Studies repeatedly show that Medicare for All would save countless lives and hundreds of billions of dollars a year

A federal analysis released this week projects that U.S. healthcare spending is set to rise to $7.7 trillion by 2032 and account for nearly 20% of the nation’s economy, findings that single-payer advocates described as yet another indictment of the country’s for-profit system and further evidence of the need for Medicare for All.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Office of the Actuary said Wednesday that it expects national healthcare expenditures to outpace U.S. economic growth over roughly the next decade, “resulting in an increase in the health spending share of GDP from 17.3% in 2022 to 19.7% in 2032.”

The CMS analysis showed that U.S. healthcare spending grew at a rate of 7.5% last year, with overall expenditures reaching $4.8 trillion. CMS said it projects health spending will rise by 5.6% annually over the coming years, with overall spending reaching $7.7 trillion by 2032.

Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement Thursday that the coming surge in healthcare spending “has nothing to do with improving care and everything to do with price-gouging, monopolization, and wealth extraction by insurance corporations, Big Pharma, and for-profit hospitals.”

Despite spending more on healthcare per capita than any other rich nation, the U.S. consistently ranks last among its peers in health outcomes.