Health Costs

Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 4% to average $22,221, according to the 2021 benchmark KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey. Many employers also changed their offerings on telemedicine, mental health coverage and wellness programs in response to the pandemic.

This interactive Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker tool allows users to examine five decades worth of data on health expenditures by federal and local governments, private insurers, and individuals.

This brief summarizes our recent polling on the public’s experiences with health care costs and the consequences of high costs on the uninsured and those with lower incomes.

Premiums for ACA Marketplace benchmark silver plans are decreasing on average across the U.S. in 2022. However, premium changes vary widely by location and by metal level, including premium increases in a number of counties and plans.

This updated analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker estimates that the preventable costs of treating unvaccinated patients in hospitals total $13.8 billion during the six-month period from June through November when the delta variant led to a surge in admissions.

This analysis assesses whether people can afford to pay cost-sharing amounts common with private insurance plans. It finds that large shares of non-elderly households do not have enough liquid assets to meet typical plan cost-sharing amounts.

This updated analysis examines COVID-19’s effect on mortality rates, and estimates that in January 2022, COVID-19 was number two on the list of leading causes of death in the U.S.

This chart collection takes a deep dive into employment data  to analyze how jobs and wages in the health sector shrank and recovered during the coronavirus pandemic.