U.S. Sick Care Spending

I checked David Wolfe’s recent spending meme. The figures don’t hold up.

Don’t Share Bad Numbers Just Because You Hate Big Pharma

I love to truth bomb — especially when it comes to health, on both the medical and the natural side. A recent meme circulating from David Wolfe lists huge dollar amounts spent on diabetes, cancer care, drugs, and more. A lot of people are sharing it. Before I passed it along, I checked the numbers. They’re grossly inaccurate, and posting bad figures only makes people who prefer natural health look sloppy. The real spending data is still ugly — just not the numbers on that graphic.

The system is definitely not built around making people well. It is built around managing sickness.

That is not a slogan. It’s the truth. Look at where the money actually goes.

The U.S. spent about $5.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024. Most of that is driven by chronic disease. Retail prescription drugs alone were about $467 billion. Broader drug spending (including clinic and hospital drugs) is even higher — hundreds of billions more.

Cancer care is in the hundreds of billions. Diagnosed diabetes, when you include medical costs and lost productivity, has been estimated at over $400 billion in a single year.

Compare that with screening: all cancer screening combined was about $43 billion in 2021. Mammograms were about $9 billion. Screening colonoscopies were about $24 billion.

A system paid to manage symptoms has little incentive to remove the causes. Your body is not deficient in a lifelong prescription. It needs the conditions that let it heal.

Real numbers chart (U.S., rounded)

Source links include:

1. U.S. healthcare $5.3 trillion (2024) + retail prescription drugs $467 billion
   https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/nhe-fact-sheet
2. Diabetes $413 billion (2022, medical + lost productivity) and cancer care projected $240+ billion by 2030
   https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/data-research/facts-stats/
3. Cancer screening $43.2 billion (2021); screening colonoscopy ~$23.7 billion; breast screening ~$8.8 billion
   https://www.auntminnie.com/clinical-news/article/15680964/cancer-screening-in-the-us-costs-432b-annually
4. Type 2 diabetes medical spending ~$144 billion and neoplasms/cancer ~$259 billion (2019)
   https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830568
5. Broader U.S. prescription-drug expenditures $915 billion in 2025 (much larger than “$1.8 billion Wolfe states”)
   https://academic.oup.com/ajhp/article/83/14/728/8662887
6. C-section closer to ~$29,000 per delivery, not $300 billion as a national line item (Wolfe was way way off)
   https://www.moneygeek.com/living/healthcare/costs-of-having-a-baby-in-america/