How much does the U.S. spend on healthcare per person each year?

How to get close to this number

Take the national total and divide by population. The explanation gives $5.3 trillion, spread across a population of about three hundred and forty million. That division lands in the mid-teens of thousands per person, and it is a better route than guessing from your own bills, because most spending is paid by insurers and government rather than out of pocket.

The comparison is the point: roughly double the average of other wealthy countries. Spending twice as much per person on the same category of service is the sort of gap that usually indicates a price difference rather than a quantity difference — and it does, since utilisation rates are broadly similar.

The outcome mismatch in the explanation is the central puzzle: life expectancy several years lower than in most of the countries spending half as much. The Spanish hospital question on this site is the other end of that comparison, and the pair together make the point that in health systems, spending and results are only loosely connected.