By Anna Wilde Mathews | Graphics by Andrew Mollica
Americans spend more on healthcare than anyone else in the world. Just insuring a family here costs nearly $27,000 a year, enough to buy a car.
The main cause: Prices are far higher in the U.S. for the same medical products and services, from surgeries to drugs.
American patients have also been using more care recently, including costly hospital treatment and expensive new drugs for weight loss. That has pushed up spending as well.
Here are some of the factors that make U.S. healthcare the most expensive.
Prescription drugs cost a lot more in the U.S.
Most other nations force drugmakers to accept lower rates, while the U.S. government generally doesn't.
Big hospitals can charge higher rates because of consolidation
One reason for higher surgery and other prices: Many cities and communities are now dominated by a single hospital system, partly because hospitals have been merging in recent years.
The consolidation has given hospital systems leverage to command higher rates during negotiations with health insurers. The insurers would lose business if powerful hospitals shut them out.
The U.S. spends far more than other countries on administration
The costs include functions like billing, claims processing and customer service.
Labor costs are higher
American doctors and nurses generally make more than their counterparts in other countries, another factor that can drive up the cost of care.
Americans are using more healthcare
Healthcare utilization has grown faster than prices in the most recent years.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at Anna.Mathews@wsj.com and Andrew Mollica at andrew.mollica@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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