Financing Health Care: Businesses, Households, and Governments, 1987-2003

This article provides estimates of health care expenditures by businesses, households, and governments for 1987-2003. Sponsors that finance public and private health insurance programs and other payers face increasing challenges as health care cost rise. Their capacity to support rising costs was particularly strained during the recent economic recession, with the Federal Government's burden measured against revenue available for this purpose growing faster than for other sponsors.