Deliotte-The Hidden Costs of U.S. Health Care for Consumers: A Comprehensive Analysis

The official National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) do not capture all health-related spending. Deloitte’s study, developed in collaboration with Oxford Economics, aims to provide a more comprehensive estimate of U.S. spending on all health-related goods and services. Building upon the NHEA data, this study adopted a broad view of health care expenditures which includes both direct and indirect costs, as well as items such as functional foods and nutritional supplements, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) goods and services, and the imputed value of unpaid supervisory care provided to sick people by family and friends. The study found an estimated 60 percent of the imputed supervisory care was provided to people over 65 years of age. Almost all supervisory care was provided to people in the lower income bands. Around 80 percent (imputed value of $161 billion) of supervisory care was provided to people withfamily incomes of less than $50,000. Supervisory care is most likely provided by a spouse or partner of the recipient, with two person families accounting for around 45 percent ($90 billion) of total imputed costs of supervisory care.