Health Care Cost
The cost of health care is estimated using premiums from employer-sponsored health insurance premium and additional out-of-pocket costs. In 2022, employer-sponsored health insurance was still the most common (59%) form of coverage. However, a large portion of the population do not have access to affordable health insurance coverage through employers. Health care expenses are usually higher for those who must purchase their coverage individually or through the federal marketplace.
To address the lack of data for the cost of health care in general, we also include data on those who forego or delay needed health services because they are hard to afford.
Over the last 5 years, expenditures on health care have increased by almost 60% from $1,400 in 2017 to $2,200 in 2021. In this same period, the number of people who have skipped health services when they needed them has generally gone down.
However, many are still foregoing health services. In 2022, 7% of people in Washington, approximately 1,900 individuals, skipped seeing a doctor because they could not afford one.
Large differences persist across different groups in Washington. For example, people who do not have health insurance skip seeing a doctor due to unaffordability at a higher rate than people with health insurance. Historically marginalized groups, such as Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and LGBT people, are more likely to forego health care because they could not afford it than other groups.
Healthcare premiums are obtained from the AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Insurance Component, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Out-of-pocket expenses are obtained from IPUMS Health Surveys: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
Data on skipping health services is obtained from adults who reported that there was a time in the past 12 months when they needed to see a doctor but could not because of cost in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey.
The data for cost is limited to those in the private-sector with health insurance covered by their employers (59% of Washingtonians in 2022).
The lowest level of geographic disaggregation in the MEPS data is by region in Census. This, however, masks the wide variation within the states in one region and counties in one state.
Total annual cost of healthcare is calculated by adding out-of-pocket expenditures to employee paid premium.