CMS: U.S. employers to spend $1.3T on health benefits this year
National Health Expenditure forecasters see increases in cost per participant slowing somehwat, while employer spending will rise.
A team of analysts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put data supporting that assessment in a new batch of national health expenditure projection tables.
The team predicts that:
- Total U.S. employer spending will increase 5.8%, to $1.3 trillion.
- Enrollment will shrink 0.2%, to 178 million.
- Average spending per participant will increase 6%, to $7,459.
For employers, the expected 2024 spending growth rate is down from 10.2% in 2023. But, from 2014 through 2020, employers’ cost growth rate was 5.1% or lower.
The big picture
The CMS national health expenditure team prepares the spending forecasts to help policymakers at Medicare and other government agencies run health programs and understand how health costs will affect the economy.
The forecasters see overall health care spending increasing 5.2% this year, to $5 trillion. That will be 17.7% of gross domestic product, which will be about $28.5 trillion.
Including overhead, the average amount of 2024 health care spending per person is $15,074. That compares with $85,055 in U.S. GDP per person.
Related: Higher premiums, out-of-pocket costs drive higher health care financial burden
Total health care spending could rise to $7.7 trillion, or 19.7% of GDP, in 2032, according to the numbers for the most distant year in the projection tables.