Who is to blame for America’s enormous health-care costs? The sector accounts for almost a fifth of the country’s GDP, twice the average for wealthy countries, yet outcomes are no better. Americans under 70 are almost twice as likely as their counterparts in similarly affluent nations to die of cardiovascular diseases. Death rates due to other conditions like diabetes and kidney diseases are also much higher.
Most Americans point the finger at drugmakers, insurers or the middlemen between them. Luigi Mangione, whose trial for the alleged murder of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, America’s biggest health insurer, began last month, has received donations totalling $740,000. “He did what everyone else is just thinking,” wrote one sympathiser on Mr Mangione’s fundraising page recently.
More often overlooked are America’s hospitals, which took in $1.5trn in fees in 2023, according to the most recent government figures. That is triple the amount spent on medications, and accounts for a third of America’s total health-care spending (see chart 1). Since 2000 hospital prices have soared by over 250%, growing at twice the overall rate for medical care and triple the rate of inflation. What is behind America’s soaring hospital bills?
How hospitals inflate America’s giant health-care bill
— Yasir Mahmood (@MofaYasir) March 20, 2025
America has the worst healthcare system in the world for the amount of money they spend on it https://t.co/A8eRzmH7vV
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