VISIT STATE HEALTH COMPARE
Blog & News
Employee Health Plans at Large Firms Paid for Smaller Portion of Medical Expenses in 2016 (Infographic)
November 03, 2017:The share of medical expenses paid by health plans for employees at large firms has been falling in recent years, dropping by 1.3 percentage points nationwide between 2014 and 2016, according to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Across the country, these plans paid for 80.4% of the medical expenses of their enrollees in 2014, compared with 79.1% in 2016.
This means if a worker covered by an employer health plan at a large firm incurred $5,000 of expenses in 2016—close to the average for the population covered by employer-sponsored insurance [1]—the health plan would have paid $3,955. (Text continues below infographic.)
THE STATE STORY
In all, 13 states saw significant decreases from 2014 to 2016:
- Delaware -5.0pp (83.0% to 78.0%)
- Connecticut -4.0pp (81.0% to 77.0%)
- New Jersey -3.9pp (82.6% to 78.7%)
- North Dakota -3.7pp (80.5% to 76.8%)
- Colorado -3.3pp (81.1% to 77.8%)
- Maine -2.8pp (80.7% to 77.9%)
- Ohio -2.8pp (81.8% to 79.0%)
- Wisconsin -2.6pp (81.1% to 78.5%)
- Hawaii -2.4pp (85.0% to 82.6%)
- New York -2.4pp (80.9% to 78.5%)
- Louisiana -2.3pp (80.5% to 78.2%)
- Washington -2.3pp (81.3% to 79.0%)
- Texas -1.9pp (79.7% to 77.8%)
Rhode Island is the only state that saw a significant increase in the percentage of medical expenses paid by health plans for employees at large firms, with a 3.0 percentage-point increase from 2014 to 2016 (from 79.5% to 82.5%).
In all, 36 states saw no significant change in the percentage of medical expenses paid by employer plans from 2014 to 2016.
Source: SHADAC analysis of unpublished tabulations from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey/Insurance Component, 2014, 2015 & 2016.
*MEPS defines large employers as firms with greater than 50 employees except for in some states such as Colorado and New York in 2016 where they defined large employers as firms with greater than 100 employees.
For additional information on employer-sponsored insurance coverage at the state and national level, visit www.shadac.org/ESIReport2017.
[1] Health Care Cost Institute. November 2016. “2015 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report.” Available at http://www.healthcostinstitute.org/report/2015-health-care-cost-utilization-report/
Blog & News
New Resource: State Fact Sheets on Health Care Access and Utilization from 2011 to 2015
October 10, 2017:SHADAC has produced a new set of state fact sheets that examine key indicators of health care access and utilization from 2011 to 2015 using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
The fact sheets are available for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and look at access and utilization indicators for the population as a whole and by age (0-18 years, 19-64 years, and 65+ years).
The analysis includes the following access to care indicators:
- Percent of individuals with a usual source of care
- Percent of individuals who had no trouble finding a doctor
- Percent of individuals who were told provider accepts insurance type
We include the following indicators of health care utilization:
- Percent of individuals who had a general doctor or provider visit
- Percent of individuals who had a visit to an emergency department
- Percent of individuals who spent a night in the hospital
Access the new state fact sheets.
Download a fact sheet for the entire United States.
Publication
State Trends in Health Care Access & Utilization, 2011-2015
These SHADAC state fact sheets highlight key indicators of health care access and utilization from 2011 to 2015 at the state level using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
Estimates for the following indicators are provided for the population as a whole and by age (0-18, 19-64, 65+):
Access to Care
- Percent of individuals with a usual source of care
- Percent of individuals who had no trouble finding a doctor
- Percent of individuals who were told provider accepts insurance type
Health Care Utilization
- Percent of individuals who had a general doctor or provider visit
- Percent of individuals who had a visit to an emergency department
- Percent of individuals who spent a night in the hospital
Choose a state below to view and download its individual fact sheet.
Download a single file for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Download a fact sheet for the entire United States.
Blog & News
Google Trends: A Rich Source of Data for Health Policy Analysis - New Brief
May 30, 2017:
A new brief from SHADAC examines Google Trends as a source of internet search data and provides an example of how researchers are using these data to study health policy under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) SHARE program.
The brief authors note that the data available through Google Trends can be used to study health policy at both the state and sub-state level over time and offer some advantages over traditional sources of surveillance data (e.g., surveys) including timeliness, efficiency, transparency, and accessibility. However, users should be aware that certain groups of people might be over- or under-represented among internet search data because of variability in online access and internet search usage among subpopulations. Additionally, there is some evidence that Google Trends search results are not stable over time due to continuous algorithm updates by Google.
The brief highlights the use of Google Trends by Dr. Sarah Gollust (University of Minnesota) and Dr. Erika Franklin Fowler (Wesleyan University), who capitalized on the data available through Google Trends in order to conduct a SHARE-funded analysis of (a) whether geographic regions with higher rates of uninsurance spent more time researching ACA marketplace plans and health insurance coverage generally during the first ACA open enrollment period and (b) whether other local-level factors were associated with higher search volumes. The researchers found that internet searches for health insurance terms varied widely across the country, with areas of high pre-ACA rates of uninsurance more likely to search in higher volumes for the key terms "Obamacare" and "health insurance," and geographically dispersed rural areas exhibiting a higher search volume than large urban areas.
Learn more about the SHARE project led by Sarah Gollust and Erika Franklin Fowler.
About SHARE
State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that supports rigorous research on issues surrounding state health reform. The SHARE program is managed by SHADAC.
Publication
Using Google Trends to Support Health Policy Analysis
This brief describes a rich source of internet search data--Google Trends--and provides an example of how researchers are using these data to study health policy.
Access additional content from the SHARE-funded research project led by Dr. Sarah Gollust and Dr. Erika Franklin Fowler.
