Healthcare spending accounts for 25% of the United States economy.
Posted by The Joe Rogan Experience, Checked
- Sources
- 5 contradict1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
The Joe Rogan ExperienceNov 6, 2026
The claim that healthcare spending is 25% of the US economy is contradicted by the official CMS figures, which put health spending at 18.0% of GDP in 2024, with 2025 and 2026 estimates of about 18.4% and 18.7%.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… Policies are bullshit. Obamacare, Obamacare, like, that's one of the biggest policies in the past 20 years, written by the insurance industry. Insurance premiums have gone up 1.5x since then. Like, it's now 25% of the US economy is healthcare. It was written by the insurance industries. It created a thing where you can raise premiums and get 15% of a larger and larger pie, created a direct incentives, and the stocks of insurance companies have gone up 15x. …
The Joe Rogan Experience · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. CMS's NHE Fact Sheet reports that national health spending accounted for 18.0% of GDP in 2024, and it projects 18.7% for 2026, well short of 25%.[1][3]
Contradicts. Advisory Board's summary of the 2026 NHE report says healthcare spending made up 18.4% of GDP in 2025, and the AMA and KFF Health News both put the 2024 share at 18%.[4][5][6]
Context. A CBO long-term outlook projects total health spending rising from 16% of GDP in 2007 to 25% in 2025, but this is a counterfactual projection under no-change-in-law assumptions, not a measured share, and the measured 2024–2025 figures are about 18%.[2]
Context. The claim's wording matches the extraction from the post, which said healthcare is 'now 25% of the US economy'; the figure is not an addition, so it is graded as the poster's claim.
Sources
6 sources: 2 primary, 4 not rated
- 1NHE Fact Sheet | CMScms.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts
- 2The Long-Term Outlook for Health Care Spendingcbo.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 3How much is health spending expected to grow? - Peterson-KFF Health System Trackerhealthsystemtracker.org · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 4Charted: US healthcare spending to reach almost $9T by ...advisory.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 5Trends in health care spending | Healthcare costs in the US | AMAama-assn.org · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 6Digging Into the Money Behind the US Healthcare Systemkffhealthnews.org · not rated · cited for: contradicts
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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