The Health Care Financing Administration reports that the public- and private-sector shares of health care spending are approximately 46 and 54 percent, respectively. But according to the Employment Benefit Research Institute's EBRI Health Benefits Databook (Washington, D.C.: EBRI, 1999), these numbers do not take into account tax revenues from the exclusion of employment-based health insurance costs from workers' income tax nor the amount that federal, state, and local governments contribute toward the cost of employment-based health benefits for their public sector workers. When these are figured in, public/private percentages become 58 and 42, respectively. [Return to text]