Value Added: Health Care and Social Assistance

Think of it this way

It is the spending that is not postponed even when times get tough.

What is Value Added: Health Care and Social Assistance?

Hospitals, medical practices, nursing homes and social services. In the United States it is a private sector of a size with no equivalent in other developed countries.

How to read Value Added: Health Care and Social Assistance

It rises steadily and barely notices recessions: demand for health care does not depend on the cycle.

What Value Added: Health Care and Social Assistance means for the market

It is GDP's silent stabilizer. In downturns it holds up the total while investment and trade collapse.

Where the money flows

GDP can be measured in three ways that give the SAME figure: by spending (who buys), by production (who makes it) and by income (who earns it). This version uses the second: the value added of each industry, which is what it produces minus what it bought from others to produce it. Subtracting those purchases is what avoids counting twice the steel that goes into a car. The “By spending” version of the same chart splits the total the other way, which is why none of its lines match these: they do not measure different things, they divide the same thing differently.

What to watch in Value Added: Health Care and Social Assistance

Its growing share is one of the reasons US GDP is less cyclical than it was decades ago.

It does not measure liquidity: it is the part of GDP produced by this sector.