Health care prices: Americans pay more and more for less

When will Americans be priced out of the health care system?

Or are they already?

Health care economic analytics and research firm Trilliant Health published “2025 Trends Shaping the Health Economy,” a new report identifying six major factors contributing to the good and the bad in the U.S. health care system.

“The laws of economics necessitate a change in the health economy,” the report’s introduction noted. Americans are paying more and more for health care, but judging from the health of the American people, they are getting less and less.

This slideshow presents some of the financial points in part one of the report. The first trend is: “Price Sensitivity and Affordability Concerns Are Reshaping Demand.”

Trilliant Health based the report primarily on its proprietary datasets logging patients, providers and negotiated rates across the country. Additional data come from publicly available sources, including federal agencies that deal with health care and labor, business’ financial statements, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association.

The first part of the slideshow involves medical care cost increases. It concludes with indicators of the prices that workers and employers pay for health insurance.