Briefs
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Privately Insured Individuals with Diabetes Spend Twice as Much Out-of-Pocket on Health Care as those without Diabetes
Read more: Privately Insured Individuals with Diabetes Spend Twice as Much Out-of-Pocket on Health Care as those without DiabetesOver 10% of the U.S. population— more than 34 million individuals— lives with diabetes, with 1.5 million new cases diagnosed each year. As people with diabetes manage this chronic condition, they often pay substantial amounts out of their own pockets on medical care and prescription medications. Using HCCI’s unique health care claims dataset, this brief…
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The First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Had a Disproportionate Impact on Inpatient Service Use in Socially Vulnerable Metro Areas
Read more: The First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Had a Disproportionate Impact on Inpatient Service Use in Socially Vulnerable Metro AreasEach year, HCCI publishes an annual update to the Healthy Marketplace Index (HMI), an interactive tool that describes how health care prices, use, and spending vary across metropolitan areas. HMI helps us to understand how these aspects of the health care system compare and contrast to the median metropolitan area. We recently released the latest…
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One-Third of Births Occurred by C-Section in ESI and Medicaid in 2020
Read more: One-Third of Births Occurred by C-Section in ESI and Medicaid in 2020Caesarean sections (c-sections) are often life-saving procedures that can prevent injury and death among birthing people and newborns. At the same time, when they are not medically necessary, c-sections may have higher risks to babies and birthing people than vaginal births. Monitoring rates of c-sections among birthing people is an important component of efforts to improve…
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Average Payments for Childbirth Among the Commercially Insured and Fee-for-Service Medicaid
Read more: Average Payments for Childbirth Among the Commercially Insured and Fee-for-Service MedicaidIt is well-established that the rates hospitals and physicians are paid to provide health care services are significantly lower in Medicaid than in private health insurance. In this brief, we provide new data on this payment gap in the context of childbirth, an especially relevant area of care since Medicaid and ESI together cover the…
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Effects of COVID-19 on Health Care Spending Were Concentrated in April-May 2020
Read more: Effects of COVID-19 on Health Care Spending Were Concentrated in April-May 2020The COVID-19 pandemic shaped health care spending and use over the past two years in numerous ways. We recently released our Health Care Cost and Utilization Report which provides data from the first year of the pandemic on health care use, spending, and prices across different types of services for approximately 55 million individuals enrolled…
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The Price of Childbirth in the U.S. Tops $13,000 in 2020
Read more: The Price of Childbirth in the U.S. Tops $13,000 in 2020As HCCI has previously documented, the price of childbirth in the U.S. is higher than in many other countries. When prices are high, patients with health insurance pay directly through coinsurance (i.e., cost-sharing calculated as a percent of what their insurer pays for the service) and over time, as higher prices charged to insurers are…
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Birthing People in the U.S. Pay Nearly $2,000 Out-of-Pocket to Have a Baby
Read more: Birthing People in the U.S. Pay Nearly $2,000 Out-of-Pocket to Have a BabyThe birth of a child is momentous for any person and family. New parents may face a range of challenges, including a lack of paid family leave, the rising costs of childcare, and potential health-related complications for the birthing person and new baby. In the midst of this major life transition, parents also face new…
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As COVID-19 Hit, Birthing People Spent Less Time in the Hospital for Delivery
Read more: As COVID-19 Hit, Birthing People Spent Less Time in the Hospital for DeliveryThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Americans in a myriad of ways, including their use of the health care system for both COVID- and non-COVID related services. In this brief, we explore the ways in which the first year of the pandemic affected people for one of the most common hospital services – childbirth. In 2020,…
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COVID Tests Cost $0 for Most People in 2020
for Most People in 2020″ style=”border-radius:5px;width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;” decoding=”async” loading=”lazy” />Read more: COVID Tests Cost $0 for Most People in 2020COVID-19 testing has become a regular part of life for many Americans over the last two years. In addition to facilitating individual returns to work, school, and other activities, testing is a crucial component of the public health strategy to monitor and address the spread of the virus. Even as testing becomes more available, there…
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Love is Expensive; So is a Trip to the Emergency Room
Tags: Emergency Room
Read more: Love is Expensive; So is a Trip to the Emergency RoomWe further explored state variation in the difference between per person ER spending and per person Valentine’s Day spending. We find that if you live in Texas, Colorado, Alaska, or Nevada, you might end up paying over $200 more for an ER visit than a Valentine’s Day gift. If you live in California, Hawaii, or…