US Cities with high health care costs in 2021 spent 3 times more per person than cities with lower costs

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Jul 06, 2023, 10:00 ET

Data from the Health Care Cost Institute show per person health care spending ranged from just under $3,500 in Bakersfield, CA to just over $11,000 in Charleson, WV

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Median per person health care spending in the US exceeded $6,000 in 2021 and fluctuated across 183 local metropolitan areas, according to the most recent Healthy Marketplace Index from the Health Care Cost Institute. Local areas varied both in how many services patients used and the prices of those services. In metro areas with the highest use, patients used nearly three times more health care services than the lowest use metro areas. Prices in the most expensive metro area were more than double the prices in the least expensive area.

"High and growing health spending is forcing families, employers, and governments across the country to make difficult tradeoffs," said Health Care Cost Institute President and CEO Katie Martin. "The Healthy Marketplace Index shows that health care costs depend a great deal on where you live, the result of market dynamics like prices, practice patterns, and competition. Therefore, we need a multi-dimensional approach to making health care more affordable."

The Healthy Marketplace Index also finds that most hospital markets lacked competition in 2021. Two-thirds of the metro areas studied (121 out of 183) were highly or very highly concentrated, and most metro areas became less competitive over time.

From 2017 – 2021, median per person health care spending in the US increased by 24%. This growth reflects a 9% increase in prices, on average, and a 14% increase in service use, on average.

HCCI's Healthy Marketplace Index presents interactive visualizations and extensive data on health care spending, use, and prices, as well as hospital concentration, among individuals with employer-sponsored insurance in 183 metro areas in 2021. The Index is intended for use by the public, policymakers, researchers, and journalists; it includes changes from 2017-2021 and details by health care service category. HMI's findings are powered by HCCI's commercial claims data, which includes more than 50 million covered lives each year. The full report can be accessed here.

About the Health Care Cost Institute
The Health Care Cost Institute is a mission-driven non-profit at the nexus of data, analytics, and action. HCCI was founded in 2011 to leverage unique, high-quality data and extraordinary expertise in research and policy to give decisionmakers the tools they need to lower health care costs and increase value in the health care system. To learn more about HCCI, visit https://healthcostinstitute.org/.

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SOURCE Health Care Cost Institute