WASHINGTON – Staying healthy is a costly business in the United States, particularly in the Northeast, government statistics show.

Annual health care spending per person totaled $6,409 in New England and $6,151 in the rest of the Northeast, compared with a national average of $5,283, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in today’s issue of the journal Health Affairs.

The totals include spending on individual health care from all sources, including insurance, personal expenses, Medicare, Medicaid and other sources, for 2004, the most recent figures available.

Highest per capita spending was recorded in the District of Columbia, $8,295, followed by Massachusetts, $6,683; Maine, $6,540; and New York, $6,535.

The lowest per person health care spending was $3,972 in Utah.

Nationally, per capita health spending increased on average 6.3 percent per year from 1998 to 2004, the report said.

States with generous Medicaid programs also tended to have the highest spending, such as Massachusetts, New York and Maine.