The National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) is an arm of the
Health and Human Services which calculates the costs of medical
expenses and projects future health care spending based on past
evidence. The NHEA has published their latest data set, which
ended in fiscal year 2009. According to the NHEA, health care
spending (a combination of private and public monies) broke down
in the following manner: U.S. spending for health care has been
on a relentless upward path – reaching $2.5 trillion in the
aggregate, $8,100 per person, and 17.6 percent of GDP in 2009. 5
percent of the population responsible for almost 50 percent of
all spending. At the other end, half of the population accounts
for just 3 percent of spending. That raises the question of who
is considered part of that 5% of high spending, and who is in
the bottom half of the population who accounts for 3% of
spending? "15.6 percent of the civilian, non-institutionalized
population had no health care spending at all in 2008 and the
half of the popula