Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Rising Care Costs Have Driven Health Insurance Premiums To $24,000
Bloomberg: US Health Insurance Premiums Now Cost $24,000 A Year, Survey Says
Health insurance premiums jumped this year amid a post-pandemic spike in costs of care, adding to the burden on employers and workers as inflation erodes broader buying power. The average employer-sponsored health insurance premium for US families rose 7% to almost $24,000 this year, according to an annual KFF survey of more than 2,000 US companies, compared with a 1% increase last year. Premiums for individual employer coverage rose at the same rate. (LaPara, 10/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Surge In Health-Insurance Costs Pose Next Challenge For Finance Chiefs
Accelerated increases in health-insurance costs are driven by factors including higher labor costs in hospitals and elsewhere across the healthcare system, an uptick in elective care that dipped during the pandemic and demand for new and expensive drugs. Workers tend to enroll for health insurance starting in the fall, so are learning now or will soon find out what their coverage options are for 2024. Executives, meanwhile, are starting to think about coverage for 2025. (Williams-Alavarez, 10/16)
The Wall Street Journal: Health Inflation’s Big Hike This Year, In Charts
Inflation came for your healthcare this year. Next year is looking to be just as bad. The cost of employer health insurance rose this year at the fastest clip since 2011, according to an annual survey from KFF, a healthcare research nonprofit. The 7% jump in the cost of a family plan brought the average tab to nearly $24,000—more than the price for some small cars. Workers’ average payment of $6,575 for those plans was nearly $500 more than last year. (Mathews and Ulick, 10/18)
KFF Health News takes a deeper dive into the health benefits survey —
KFF Health News: Abortion Coverage Is Limited Or Unavailable At A Quarter Of Large Employers, KFF Survey Finds
About a quarter of large U.S. employers heavily restrict coverage of legal abortions or don’t cover them at all under health plans for their workers, according to the latest employer health benefits survey by KFF. The findings demonstrate another realm, beyond state laws, in which access to abortion care varies widely across America since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (Pradhan, 10/18)
On the hidden costs of primary health care —
The Washington Post: Primary Care Saves Lives. Here’s Why It’s Failing Americans
Without patients having access to primary care, minor complaints evolve into chronic illnesses that demand complex long-term treatment plans. Addressing basic patient problems in the emergency room costs up to 12 times what it would in a primary-care office, resulting in billions of additional dollars each year. But even as evidence mounts that access to primary care improves population health, reduces health disparities and saves health-care dollars, the field is attracting fewer and fewer medical students. The remaining small-group medical practices are being replaced by concierge offices with steep annual membership fees. (Sellers, 10/17)
In related news about health care costs —
Stat: Medicare Reduced Heart Disease By Changing How It Pays Doctors
Doctors lowered the incidence of heart disease and strokes among their patients when Medicare rewarded them for focusing on sicker patients, according to research of a pilot program released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The pilot program didn’t increase overall costs at all. (Wilkerson, 10/17)
The Boston Globe: Biotech Investors Push To Extend Time Before Pills Are Subject To Price Negotiations
A group called the Incubate Coalition, comprising the venture capital firms that bankroll most biotech startups, is pressing US lawmakers to extend by four years the time that pills can be on the market before they become subject to price negotiations with Medicare. Such an extension could mean billions of dollars in extra profits to biopharma companies and their investors over time — and billions in additional costs to Medicare and its recipients. (Weisman, 10/17)
