The 2016 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report shows that spending per privately insured person grew by 4.6 percent, faster than in previous years. Price increases were the primary driver. The report covers the period 2012 through 2016 and includes claims data from four national insurance companies: Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealthcare. The data in the report can also be explored using our interactive tool, which shows cumulative changes in the prices and utilization of health care services.
Key Findings
- Total spending per person is now growing at faster rates than prior years, with 4.6% growth in 2016 compared to. 4.1% growth in 2015, which followed 2 years of sub-3% growth from 2012 to 2014.
- Utilization of most health care services remained unchanged or declined, both year-over-year and over the 2012-2016 period.
- Consumer out-of-pocket (OOP) spending per person increased, but grew more slowly than total spending. This difference in growth led to a decline in OOP spending as a share of total spending.
- Spending growth in each year from 2012 to 2016 was almost entirely due to price increases. We saw particularly large increases in spending and price for administered drugs, emergency room (ER) visits, and surgical hospital admissions.
