Public health's falling share of US health spending

D.U. Himmelstein and S. Woolhandler

American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 1, 56-57

Abstract: We examined trends in US public health expenditures by analyzing historical and projected National Health Expenditure Accounts data. Percapita public health spending (inflation-adjusted) rose from 39 in 1960 to 281 in 2008, and has fallen by 9.3% since then. Public health's share of total health expenditures rose from 1.36% in 1960 to 3.18% in 2002, then fell to 2.65% in 2014; it is projected to fall to 2.40% in 2023. Public health spending has declined, potentially undermining prevention and weakening responses to health inequalities and new health threats.

Keywords: health care cost; public health; economics; factual database; financial management; human; public health; statistics and numerical data; trends; United States, Databases, Factual; Financing, Government; Health Expenditures; Humans; Public Health; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302908_6

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302908

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