What are the Trends in Health Utilization and Spending in Early 2024?

Recent trends in healthcare utilization and spending suggest that most spending on health services exceeds pre-pandemic levels and health costs are growing at a faster rate than in recent years. However, utilization of care has been uneven by setting and market. For example, some measures of hospital utilization remain lower than pre-pandemic levels, which could reflect a continuing transition of care to outpatient centers.

This chart collection examines recent trends in healthcare utilization and spending using a variety of data sources. As of the first quarter of 2024, annual growth in health services spending is now higher than before the pandemic.

The full chart collection and other data on health costs are available on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an online information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.