Findings from an AHRQ Statistical Brief show in 2019, Medicare and private insurance paid for more than three-quarters of expenses for people who ranked among the top 5 percent of healthcare spenders (Medicare: 31.3 percent; private insurance: 45.4 percent) while out-of-pocket payments comprised just 7.3 percent of expenses in this group.
In this Statistical Brief, data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) are used to describe the overall concentration of healthcare expenditures across the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2019. The most commonly treated conditions among top spenders are identified, and the shares of spending by age groups, race/ethnicity, type of medical service, and source of payment are illustrated.
Read more: