The typical U.S. working family spends nearly $4,000 per year on health care, including their share of insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs, according to a new analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Why it matters: That’s just the median amount, and plenty of families pay thousands more. But it goes a long way in explaining why health care is at the forefront of voters’ “affordability” concerns.
Details: The study used Census data from 2024 and defines “working families” as those with at least one worker between the ages of 18 and 64.
- This means it includes families that get their insurance from employers, the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and Medicaid.
The big picture: There’s huge variation in how much families pay for health care, and the burden of that spending depends on their income.
- As a result, it makes sense to look at spending as a dollar amount and as a percentage of income, which the authors of the report did.
- They classified families that spend more than 10% of their before-tax family income on health care as being “cost burdened.”
By the numbers: More than 1 in 8 working families were cost-burdened in 2024, per the report.
- Among the lowest-income fifth of working families, more than one in five were cost-burdened.
- The top 10% of health care spenders spent $14,800 or more per year on health care.
Between the lines: The report found that what families spend on health care correlates strongly with income — the more money a family makes, the more it spends on care.
- Health expenditures also closely correspond with the level of education of the worker in the family, with more educated workers’ families paying more for care.
- Families with white workers spend more on care than families with Black, Hispanic or Asian workers.