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AHRQ News and Numbers
Release date: May 23, 2005
In 2002, just 5 percent of Americans accounted for 49 percent of all health care spending, according to the latest available data from Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
- Americans with the highest medical bills (the top 5 percent) had more than $11,500 in total annual medical expenses.
- Americans with the lowest medical bills (the bottom 50 percent) spent less than $664.
- About one-third of people with the highest medical expenses (the top 5 percent) had out-of-pocket costs that exceeded 10 percent of their family income; almost one-fifth had out-of-pocket costs that exceeded 20 percent of their family income.
- Not surprisingly, older Americans tended to have higher medical bills. More than one-quarter of Americans with the very highest bills were between the ages of 65 and 79, and another 14 percent were 80 and older.
For a copy of Characteristics of Persons with High Medical Expenditures in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2002, visit http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st73/stat73.pdf [PDF Help].
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