Escalating health care costs challenge Utahns and employers statewide

Main image, L-R: Kim Frost, moderator and director of public affairs and government relations at Regence; Panelists Katie Martin, Bill Kramer and Ginger Chinn

At Regence, our members and customers repeatedly tell us that health care affordability is a growing concern. The bottom line: Health care has become too expensive, even with good insurance. In 2022, Utah had the highest rate of employer-sponsored health insurance in the nation. Even so, nearly 7 in 10 Utahns (86%) reported being worried about affording health care in the future.

As a nonprofit health plan, Regence premiums directly reflect the cost of health care. Unless we address affordability challenges at their root causes, costs will remain a concern for Utahns. We recently convened a panel of nationally and locally recognized experts to discuss health care affordability, including a recent analysis of health care spending by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and shared perspectives on potential solutions. Panelists included:

• Katie Martin, CEO and president, Health Care Cost Institute
• Bill Kramer, senior adviser for health policy, Purchaser Business Group on Health
• Ginger Chinn, vice president, Salt Lake Chamber

“It’s a difficult time for Utah employers as they face the challenge of increasing health care costs when full benefits are critical to employee recruiting and retention efforts,” said Jennifer Olsen, director of account management, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah. “Our medical claims data confirms their concern; we paid more than $2 billion in member claims in 2023, spending over $5,000 in average benefits per member.” 

During the discussion, Kramer and Martin emphasized the importance of innovation, advocacy and public policy to reverse the trend of escalating health care costs. They also stressed the need for all players to analyze increasing cost trend data and engage in identifying solutions – on behalf of Utahns, individuals and families nationwide. Chinn noted that Salt Lake Chamber’s informal survey of employer members confirmed a great amount of worry about health care costs.

“We’re in a crisis that has been going on for years and is growing in intensity,” said Kramer. “As health care costs increase, employers have less money to invest in business development, innovation and wages. Given that life expectancy in this country is decreasing, we’re not getting value for the money we’re investing in health care.”

At Regence, we’re working to address high costs through multiple initiatives:

• Engaging in One Utah Health Collaborative’s work to transform health care in Utah.
• Leading nationally in the adoption of biosimilar medications.
• Helping our members find more affordable and equally effective care in alternative settings, like ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care, independent clinics, virtual doctor visits and more.
• Encouraging members to keep up with preventive care to avoid costly and sometimes more invasive treatments later.

Advances toward achieving affordability are being made, but significant work remains ahead of us. It’s going to take advocacy and dedicated efforts at business, state, community and individual levels to disrupt the trend of increasing health care costs in Utah.