Why does health care cost so much?
Two factors drive health care costs: The type and number of services people use and the price paid for those services.
In the last decade, consumers and businesses have experienced double-digit health insurance rate increases. In 2022, a report commissioned by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) revealed that health care costs in Washington state's commercial health insurance market increased by 13%, nearly double the rate of inflation between 2016-2019. A 2022 survey of 1,300 Washingtonians (www.healthcarevaluehub.org) found that nearly two-thirds had rationed medication, delayed or skipped needed care, or depleted their savings to pay for care or prescriptions. More than 81% worried about affording health care in the future.
What we're doing about health care affordability
In response to these growing challenges, the state Legislature directed our agency and the Attorney General's Office to analyze policy options that could impact affordability. We delivered a preliminary report in December 2023 and a final report including an actuarial and economic analysis of five policy options on Aug. 1, 2024. The data and analysis are intended to help policymakers in their efforts to make health care more affordable.
Read the 2024 Final Affordability Report
The Office of the Insurance Commissioner contracted with Health Management Associates to provide detailed actuarial and economic analysis of five policy options that could improve the affordability of health care in Washington state.
Read the 2023 Preliminary Report
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and Attorney General Bob Ferguson sent a preliminary report to the legislature on Washington's health care system. It explores recent health care market consolidation and changes for improving affordability. The report and its findings were used to evaluate policy options to improve the affordability of health care in our state.
See the health care costs and claims data behind our policy options
In the first part of our work on health care affordability, we contracted with Onpoint Health Data to review our state's health care services and the price of those services.
Onpoint used commercial claims data from the Washington State All Payer Claims Database (WA-APCD) to create a dashboard of trends in health care costs. The WA-APCD was created to improve transparency of the cost drives of health care and to support and inform policy decisions. It contains claims from more than 50 commercial health care insurers, and the Medicaid and Medicare programs.