Countries With Highest Healthcare Spending

U.S. healthcare spending hit $13,473 per person in 2023, the highest of any developed nation, according to World Bank figures, and premiums keep climbing faster than wages for millions of families.

At a Glance

• The U.S. spent $13,473 per capita on healthcare in 2023, well ahead of Switzerland's $11,784.
• Health spending equaled 16.69% of U.S. GDP in 2023, versus 4.28% in Türkiye.
• Average family health insurance premiums reached $26,993 in 2025, up 6% from the prior year.
• About 28% of American adults skipped medical care in 2024 because of cost, per Federal Reserve data.
• Chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease account for 90% of national healthcare spending.

Why American Healthcare Costs So Much More

The gap between the United States and everyone else is not subtle. Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Luxembourg round out the next tier of big spenders, each landing somewhere between $8,000 and $11,000 per person in 2023. But none of them come close to matching the American figure. Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development data on healthcare spending as a share of GDP tells a similar story: the United States topped the list in 2023, with Germany, Switzerland, France, and Sweden trailing behind. Canada, Austria, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Japan filled out the next five spots.

The pattern is not new. Back in 2018, the U.S. was already spending 16.51% of its GDP on healthcare, the highest of any wealthy country. Compare that to Türkiye, which spent just 4.12% of GDP on healthcare that year and 4.28% in 2023, among the lowest figures of any developed economy. The difference between these two ends of the spectrum comes down largely to how each system is financed, not simply how sick each population is.

Public Systems Versus America's Private Model

Here is the twist: despite having the largest healthcare budget on paper, the U.S. government does not actually pay for most of it. A large share of American healthcare spending comes out of individual pockets and through private insurance, rather than through a centralized public system. Contrast that with Norway, which funds much of its socialized medicine through its Government Pension Fund, built on oil revenue, even as more costs there have started shifting toward private sources. Norway still spent only 9.42% of its GDP on healthcare in 2023, a fraction of the American rate, and its population remains among the healthiest in the world.

The core reason for America's outsized bill is structural. The country runs on a fragmented patchwork of insurers, each negotiating its own prices and offering different coverage terms. Other nations impose government oversight that sets pricing benchmarks and service standards nationwide, creating a more uniform, and often cheaper, system of care.

Premiums Keep Climbing

For ordinary households, the abstract GDP numbers matter less than what shows up on a monthly bill. In 2025, average premiums for single coverage reached $9,325, while family coverage averaged $26,993. Single premiums rose 5% that year, and family premiums rose 6%. Zoom out further and the trend looks even steeper: family premiums have climbed 26% since 2020 and 53% since 2015.

Government programs including Medicare and Medicaid have added to overall demand for medical services, which in turn has pushed prices upward across the system. Chronic illness plays an outsized role too: conditions like diabetes and heart disease drive 90% of national healthcare costs, and roughly one in five U.S. adults lives with some form of mental illness, adding further strain on an already expensive system.

Why Patients Struggle to Know What They're Paying For

Rising premiums are only half the equation. Many workers have shifted into high deductible health plans, which layer on additional costs through deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. Average family premiums under these plans reached $25,961 in 2025.

Making matters worse is a persistent lack of transparency. Roughly 89% of consumers say they would be willing to shop around for care if they had reliable pricing information, yet 61% of patients trust cost estimates from insurance payers more than from health organizations, and only 28% trust estimates from hospitals. If hospitals themselves cannot pin down the true cost of a procedure, patients have little chance of comparison shopping, a problem compounded by how widely prices vary from one U.S. metro area to another.

The Human Cost of Skipping Care

The clearest sign that something is broken shows up in patient behavior. According to the Federal Reserve, about 28% of American adults went without some form of medical treatment in 2024 because of cost, not fear of doctors or procedures, but fear of the bill that follows. The disparity by income is stark: 41% of people in households earning under $25,000 skipped treatment, compared with just 14% of those earning $100,000 or more. Dental care tops the list of commonly skipped treatments, followed closely by routine doctor visits.

Can the U.S. Bring Healthcare Spending Under Control?

The numbers make clear that U.S. healthcare spending is not just high, it is structurally different from the rest of the developed world. Other wealthy nations spend less per person and post better outcomes on measures like life expectancy, largely because their governments negotiate prices and set national standards rather than leaving that work to a fragmented mix of private insurers. Whether U.S. policymakers can narrow that gap without upending the private insurance system that underpins American healthcare remains an open question, one that grows more urgent as premiums keep outpacing wage growth and more families report delaying care they need.