U.S. Personal Healthcare Spending Estimates From National Health Expenditure Accounts

Personal healthcare spending data for the United States includes estimates, standard errors, and confidence intervals. The dataset is produced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary and was last updated in September 2025. It covers multiple expenditure categories and subgroups over various time periods.

Use Cases

• Forecast future `ESTIMATE` values for `SUBGROUP` categories like hospital care using `TIME_PERIOD` data.
• Analyze spending trends by `TAXONOMY` and `TOPIC` such as prescription drugs or dental services over time.
• Assess the precision of expenditure estimates by analyzing `STANDARD_ERROR` and confidence intervals (`ESTIMATE_LCI`, `ESTIMATE_UCI`).
• Compare spending `ESTIMATE` across different demographic or service `SUBGROUP` classifications.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative National Health Expenditure Accounts.
• Provides statistical precision metrics including `STANDARD_ERROR` and confidence intervals.
• Covers multiple `TOPIC` and `SUBGROUP` categories for detailed analysis.

Limitations

• Sample size and row count are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Specific temporal coverage (`TIME_PERIOD` range) is not detailed in the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group.

Collection Method

National Health Expenditure Accounts compilation.

Freshness

Last updated September 2025.

Geography

United States