Comparison of health care spending by age in 8 high-income countries

The United States spends more on health care than any other country.1 Unlike many other high-income countries, which have largely uniform financing schemes for health care, the US has different financing schemes for different populations. The degree to which this fragmentation in US financing explains higher spending is not clear. Some policy makers believe that expanding the Medicare model, which has a financing system that more closely resembles that of other high-income countries (ie, it is government run and tax financed), could reduce spending substantially. To examine whether this policy has potential, this cross-sectional study compared nominal and relative spending in the US, by 5-year age groupings, with that of other high-income countries that have more homogenous financing systems. This comparison allows us to better understand spending differentials between the US and other countries for people aged 65 years or older, as well as for other age groups.