Health-care costs for families top $25,000 — triple 2001
24 May 2016
The costs of providing health care to an average American family surpassed $25,000 for the first time in 2016 — even as the rate of health cost increases slowed to a record low, a new analysis revealed Tuesday.
The $25,826 in health-care costs for a typical family of four covered by a employer-sponsored "preferred provider plan" is $1,155 higher than last year, and triple what it cost to provide health care for the same family in 2001, the first year that Milliman Medical Index analysis was done.
And it's the 11th consecutive year that the total dollar increase in the average family's health-care costs exceeded $1,110, actuarial services firm Milliman noted as it released the index.
A significant cost driver identified by the index was the rapid growth in what health plans and insured people are paying for prescription drugs, which now comprise almost 17 percent of the total spending on health care, or an average of $4,270 annually.
That's four times the prescription drug costs borne by an average family in 2001, although the index did not factor in the effect of pharmaceutical company rebates, which can reduce the total drug costs and which are becoming more common.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/24/health-care-costs-for-families-top-25000--triple-2001.html
