The Health Care Cost Institute is out with its third annual report that examines trends in health care costs and utilization of the nearly 156 million Americans under age 65 that have employer-sponsored insurance. Some notable trends identified in the report include:
- Growth in health spending remained low at 4%.
- Per person expenditures averaged $4701 for the year, up $181 from the previous year with 45% of the growth attributed to outpatient care.
- Out-of-pocket spending grew 4.8%, up to $768 per person.
- Young adult spending grew the fastest, up 5.4% for the 19-25 age group, but they had the lowest expenditures — $2548 per person compared to $8920 for the oldest adults age 55-64.
- Cost for hospital inpatient care slowed, increasing only 2.4% over the previous year.
- Outpatient care expenses are increasing rapidly with an average 7.4% growth over each of the past 2 years.
Source: 2012 Health care cost and utilization report. Health Care Cost Institute, Sept. 2013. http://www.healthcostinstitute.org/2012report
Posted by AHA Resource Center, (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org
Filed under: Ambulatory care, Benchmarking, Health care utilization, Health expenditures, Hospital costs, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Posted by Diana Culbertson |
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