Figure 1. Personal Health Care Expenditures, by Source of Funds, 1993-1996.
- Personal health care expenditures for Medicare beneficiaries were $360 billion in 1996, while personal health care spending for the Nation was $924 billion.
- Medicare beneficiaries make up 14 percent of the U.S. population but account for 39 percent of the Nations' personal health care expenditures.
- Health care spending for the Medicare population has grown faster in recent years than for the Nation as a whole—health care spending for the Medicare population increased by 29 percent between 1993 and 1996 while national spending increased by 17 percent.
- The faster growth in spending has resulted in an increasing share of national health care expenditures by the Medicare population—35 percent in 1993 versus 39 percent in 1996.