This statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research uses data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component to describe health care expenditures in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, health care expenses among the U.S. community population totaled $1.26 trillion. One percent of the population accounted for 21.8 percent of the total expenditures with an annual mean expenditure of $90,061. In contrast, the entire lower 50 percent of the population ranked by their expenditures accounted for only 2.9 percent of the total expenses for 2009.
