Medicaid spending as a percent of total U.S. health expenditure by service 2022

Medicaid continues to provide comprehensive long-term care in the United States. In 2022, the program was estimated to have paid for 34.2 percent of all home health care and nearly 30 percent of nursing home care. In addition, Medicaid covered over 58 percent of other health, residential, and personal care, which includes payments for intermediate care facilities and other home- and community-based services.

Health care spending in the U.S.

Medicaid expenditure accounted for around 16 percent of all U.S. health expenditures in 2021. Overall, health spending in the United States totaled 4.1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020 – hospital care continues to be the largest spending category. Around 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars was spent on hospital care in 2020, and expenditures are projected to continue on an upward trajectory.

The high price of hospital care

Medicare and Medicaid spend significant amounts of money on national health services, and for both programs, hospital care is the largest expense category. Hospital care spending by both Medicare and Medicaid grew by around 20 percent between 2013 and 2019. During the same period, private health insurance spending in this service category accelerated, rising by approximately 90 billion U.S. dollars.