Business, households, and governments: health spending, 1991

Governments have been thrust to the forefront of health care reform efforts as growth in government health care costs was faster than growth in all other sponsor sectors in 1991. In the business sector, real health care costs per worker have risen 65 times faster than real wages and salaries per worker during the past 26 years. Households continue to devote 5 percent of income after taxes to health care, the same percentage for the last 8 years. This article presents data supporting these findings, and an analysis of health care spending by each sponsor sector.