America’s health care spending is so out of control that the country’s economy is becoming dependent on it.
According to a report released last week by the US Department of Commerce, economic growth swelled in the third quarter of 2025. While that’s theoretically good news, an ever larger share of that consumer spending is devoted to health care costs: over the previous three months, expenditures on health care increased more than on any other goods or services. Health care spending, in fact, contributed more to the country’s gross domestic product growth than any other personal expenses.
About that surge in personal consumption: it’s all health insurance pic.twitter.com/YKzXApbN0x
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 23, 2025
The second-largest contributor to economic growth was an increase in consumer spending on nondurable goods — which, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, “was mainly in prescription drugs.”
And these spending increases came before insurance premium bills are set to skyrocket next year for both individual and employer-sponsored health plans.
The rising cost of medical care, which includes medical procedures, nursing home services, insurance, drugs, and medical equipment, has long outpaced general inflation. Currently, health care spending represents about 18 percent of the US economy, meaning that roughly one out of every five dollars spent goes toward health care costs — more than what Americans spend on groceries or housing. In 1960, it was only 5 percent.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, people in the United States are far outspending individuals in other high-income nations on health care–related costs. On average, other wealthy nations spend about half as much per person on health care as the US — even though American taxpayers subsidize the development costs of many of the drugs other countries pay far less for.
No wonder total US medical debt has surpassed $200…
Auteur: Helen Santoro
