Texans’ health care costs jump, exceed national average, study finds

Rising drug and services prices accounted for roughly three-fourths of spending growth since 2014, with Texans with employer-sponsored insurance spending $738 more in 2018 than they did in 2014, according to a new study. less Rising drug and services prices accounted for roughly three-fourths of spending growth since 2014, with Texans with employer-sponsored insurance spending $738 more in 2018 than they did in 2014, according to a ... more Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Texans’ health care costs jump, exceed national average, study finds 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Health care costs for Texans covered by employer-sponsored insurance rose faster than the national average and jumped 14 percent over five years, driven by increasing prices for prescription drugs and medical services, according to a new study.

Nearly 13 million Texans, almost half the state’s population, are covered by employer plans. They spent an average of $6,110 per person on health care in 2018, a jump of more than $700 from 2014, when costs averaged about $5,370, according to a report from the Health Care Cost Institute, a Washington think tank. Researchers analyzed data from major insurance companies including Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.

Health care costs in Texas in 2018 exceeded the national average of about $5,900. Nationally, spending jumped 18 percent to about $5,900 from about $5,000 in 2014, but not necessarily because patients are seeing doctors more frequently, according to the report.

“People are generally paying more for the same things in 2018 as they were in 2014,” said Jean Fuglesten Biniek, who co-authored the report.

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Rising pharmaceutical and medical prices accounted for 74 percent of the cost increases between 2014 and 2018, according to the study. In Texas, drug spending climbed 17 percent to $1,196 in 2018 while the cost of a hospital visit increased 10 percent to $1,205.

Out-of-pocket costs, or those not paid by insurers, also rose 14.5 percent, or $114. Spending on emergency room visits increased most dramatically, from an average of $368 in 2014 to $503 in 2018, a 36 percent difference.

Studies like the Health Care Cost Institute’s clearly point out to insurers and employers that prices, not an aging population or increased prescription drug use, are why Americans are spending more, said Stacey Pogue, a senior policy analyst at the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities.

Pogue said there’s little pressure on health care providers to tamp down costs as they grow faster than inflation.

“It’s hard to imagine how this doesn’t keep going up,” she said.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

Twitter: @gwendolynawu