It Costs $685 Billion a Year to Subsidize U.S. Health Insurance
- Amount will almost double over the next decade, CBO says
- 40 percent of spending goes toward maintaining Medicaid, CHIP
A doctor examines a patient at a health center in Maryland, U.S.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
It will cost the U.S. government almost $700 billion in subsidies this year help provide Americans under age 65 with health insurance through their jobs or in government-sponsored health programs, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The subsidies come from four main categories. About $296 billion is federal spending on programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which help insure low-income people. Almost as big are the tax write-offs that employers take for providing coverage to their workers. Medicare-eligible people, such as the disabled, account for $82 billion. Subsidies for Obamacare and for other individual coverage are the smallest segment, at $55 billion.