How much is the typical American household consumer unit paying out of pocket for health insurance premiums? And how has that changed from 1984 through 2024?
The annual Consumer Expenditure Survey is the go-to source for this kind of information, detailing how American consumer units spend money. "Consumer units", if you weren't already aware of this peculiar expression, is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' data jocks' affectionate nickname for American households that are close to, but not quite equivalent to, households. For what it's worth, the most basic difference is that a "consumer unit" in 2024 consisted of 2.4 people, but a household consisted of 2.54 people. Because that difference is very small, we'll just call it a "household consumer unit" and run with it.
In 2024, the average U.S. household consumer unit spent an average of $78,535 on everything it bought during the year. On average, that household consumer unit spent $4,055, or a little under 5.2% of its total expenditures, out of its own pocket for health insurance in 2024.
Our first chart tracks how the overall trend for out-of-pocket expenditures on health insurance has changed from 1984 through 2024:
The amount that Americans pay on health insurance has not slowed down since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. The law, which was intended to "bend the cost curve" of health insurance downward, has failed.
Our second chart looks at the more recent history from 2008 through 2024, where here, we're tracking the change in how health care costs have changed since 2008.
We find the cost of health insurance has been increasing much faster than the costs for what Americans pay out-of-pocket for medical services, drugs, and medical supplies. All these costs have risen since the Biden administration unleashed high inflation in 2021, but health insurance has increased the most out of all these categories.
References
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Expenditure Survey. Multiyear Tables. [PDF Documents: 1984-1991, 1992-1999, 2000-2005, 2006-2012, 2013-2020. Excel spreadsheet: 2021-2024]. Reference URL: https://www.bls.gov/cex/home.htm. 19 December 2025.
Image credit: Health Insurance Card and Stethoscope photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash.
Labels: health insurance, personal finance
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