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The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.

In 1794 the total expenditures of the Federal Government . amounted to $6,300,000, in 1814 they temporarily ran up to $34,700,000. In 1834 they were $18,600,000; in 1854, $55,000,000. During the war they ran up to $1,295,000,000 in 1865. Then they declined to $237,000,000 in 1878. During the ensuing decade they averaged $260,000,000 per annum. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, they were $459,400,000. Of the annual expenditures, interest charges have sometimes been a large amount. (See Debt.) In times of peace, expenditures for the army have usually been about two-thirds those for the civil departments of Government work, those for the navy about two-thirds those of the army. Since 1888 pensions have been the largest item.