A pretty shocking graph of the distribution of health care spending in the US. Gives new meaning to the term "1%-ers"--A must see to understand our situation.

Nice illustration of the distribution of health care dollars in the US.  This gives new meaning to the term "1%-ers". 

In 2009 the total spent on "personal" health care in the US was $1.259 Trillion dollars. If you look in the middle of the horizontal axis you will see that 50% of the US "non-institutionalized" population (excludes military, those in prison, schools, etc) account for just $36 Billion in spending and the other 50% account for $1,223 Billion (read that $1.223"trillion")

As you move from left to right on the graph line, you see that an ever smaller percentage of the population consume a larger part of the spending.  The Top 5% account for $623Billion of the $1.223Trillion (51% of the total) and just 1% account for $275B (23% of the total).

 A little over 50% of health care dollars in the US are spent on just 5% of the non-institutionalized population, which is roughly 235 million people in 2009, the year of the data in the graph. 

Sobering. What do you think?

Source: The Big Picture Blog