As of 2025, health care companies are the largest employers in 13 states. The industry is booming as the fastest-growing sector in the American economy. New hospitals and facilities arrive to communities heralded as economic drivers and job creators. Today, hospitals alone employ over 5.5 million people in America.
But behind the profit numbers are much darker statistics that warrant asking why Americans need so much health care.
Health and wellness are firmly at the center of this national conversation, thanks in large part to Department of Health and Human Services’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has thus far produced an overhauled food pyramid,changing vaccine schedules, and the new Great Healthcare Plan. Amidst the renewed skepticism of the health care status quo, it’s time to assess whether the ballooning health care industry is really the net positive it’s treated as.
Clearly, jobs and new economic opportunities are a boon to any region, especially in rural areas that have aging populations and need new jobs after the hollowing out of American manufacturing. Indeed, health care is now the third-largest employer in rural America. But the explosion of an industry centered on treating illness is not reflective of a healthy population.
It’s no secret that America is suffering from a health epidemic: since the 1960s, obesity rates have tripled, with more than 40% of Americans over the age of 19 now obese. Some estimates even suggest that as many as 70% of Americans could be obese. One in six American adults takes psychiatric drugs, and 129 million Americans suffer from chronic disease.
The market for sickness is booming, and it’s now the single biggest expenditure for the federal government. Medicare and Medicaid cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Since 1960, per capita health care spending has increased 10,499% in nominal dollars. Even adjusted for inflation, per capita spending has still increased a whopping 907%.
But if the market is growing, why aren’t Americans getting healthier?
There’s a cynical explanation: a revolving-door is much more profitable; a returning sick patient is simply better for the industry’s bottom line than curing a patient over the course of one or a limited number of appointments.
Compounding the problem is a broken economic structure. With certificate of need laws on the books in 35 states, hospitals in many jurisdictions can object to new facilities, stripping the local market of any competition that could offer better service or more affordable prices. Price transparency is an ongoing battle, and as anyone who has received a hospital bill knows, health care and insurance costs are confusing, unpredictable, and far from transparent.
In other words, hospitals operate like government-protected, local monopolies. It’s no wonder so many are getting into the market. And with the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and tax credits, insurance companies are also raking in sizeable profits. These are only a few of the convoluted regulations and systems driving up costs and protecting the “fat cats.”
The health care industry is an economic cash cow. As Americans grow sicker, an entire economic sector grows and profits off of their suffering. Are the lives of millions of chronically ill Americans worth propping up the industry that has failed to address their health needs? What about the one in five American children who are obese? How many must suffer before we radically assess whether the current health care system is effective?
Running a profitable business and creating jobs is a laudable endeavor, but in a system burdened by government subsidies and regulations, the numbers aren’t so simple. And if the data mean anything, then bigger isn’t always better.A ballooning health care sector hasn’t improved Americans’ health, and it’s time to stop pretending otherwise. Americans don’t need more hollow promises or celebrations of increasing health care bloat. We need transparent, first-class, and affordable health care that puts patients and our health first.
