The price of hospital services is driving health care costs and insurance premiums to climb nationwide

Patients and employers are impacted by increases health premiums. 
(Graphic by wildpixel/iStock/Getty+ via Conversation CC)

The American public may perceive hospitals as part of their community’s care network, but in reality, many hospitals and specialty clinics are businesses that strive to make a profit. 

As more medical systems in communities of all sizes have consolidated, hospital pricing has become the biggest driver of rising medical costs and steep health care insurance premium hikes.

“Health insurance premiums in the U.S. significantly increased between 1999 and 2024, outpacing the rate of worker earnings by three times, according to our newly published research in The Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open,” write economic experts Vivian Ho and Salpy Kanimian from Rice University in Houston, Texas, for The Conversation. 

Using federal information and data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, Ho and Kanimian found that “the cost of hospital services increased the most, while the cost of physician services and prescription drugs rose more slowly.”

Many hospitals, including those with nonprofit designations, often aggressively price their services and care well above their costs, Ho and Kanimian point out.

“One study found that for nonprofit health systems, the greatest pay increases between 2012 and 2019 went to hospital CEOs who grew the profits and size of their organizations the most,” Ho and Kanimian explain. In contrast, any emphasis on charity care by those systems was not linked to CEO pay. 

Ho and Kanimian suggest a way to help “ensure that nonprofit hospitals make the health of their local communities a top priority by requiring their boards to disclose their executive compensation guidelines for salary and bonuses, similar to the information that for-profit health care companies disclose to their stockholders.” Such a shift could help communities push for better care and lower costs for patients as determinants of executive pay and bonuses. 

Some economists suggest that “hospital prices should be regulated. This approach involves capping prices for health care services at the most expensive hospitals and restricting price growth for all hospitals,” Ho and Kanimian write.

Slashing Medicaid may no longer be an option for some GOP lawmakers. Where will tax-cut funding come from?

Millions of Americans rely on Medicaid for health
care coverage. (Photo by S. Andrews, Unsplash)

Republican lawmakers from districts with large numbers of Medicaid enrollees spent part of last week lobbying against slashing Medicaid funding, reports Amanda Seitz of The Associated Press. "Republicans, who already have ruled out massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, are turning their attention to siphoning as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade to help finance $4.5 trillion in tax cuts."

Unlike years ago when Medicaid was considered health care coverage for only the poorest Americans, the popular program now covers more than 70 million Americans who rely on it for everything from nursing home care to emergency room visits. Seitz writes, "GOP pressure over Medicaid is mounting, with some state party leaders joining the calls to preserve the program."

Last week, President Donald Trump promised to leave Medicaid untouched; however, the problem of funding Trump's promised tax cuts remains. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he's targeting "fraudulent or wasteful" Medicaid spending "although it’s unlikely to deliver the savings Republicans seek," Seitz reports. Additional cost-saving could come through work requirements.

Even without axing program funding, Republicans could save money by reducing coverage benefits, but those limitations could spark voter backlash. "Democrats warn that reductions are inevitable and could be dire," Seitz reports. "Starting Monday, TV ads will caution people across 20 congressional districts that hospitals are at risk of closing and millions of people could lose coverage if Republicans cut Medicaid 'to fund massive tax cuts for Elon Musk and billionaires.'"

Nationally, Medicaid has wide-ranging support. Seitz reports, "Fifty-five percent of Americans said the government spends too little on Medicaid." Drew Altman, president of the health care research firm KFF, told Seitz, “It’s now a very popular program that touches a very broad cross-section of American society. Roughly half of the American people say that they or a family member have at one time been served by the program.”

To see where Medicaid enrollees live, click here.

Quick hits: Super Bowl food line-up; heavy metal plants; immigration explained; changing U.S. geographical names

Buffalo chicken dip sweeps the Midwest and much of the South. (Coffeeness map via Mental Floss)

Super Bowl game parties are all about sporting fun served with delightful spreads of game-night food. "The Super Bowl is more than the championship game for professional football teams in the U.S. Super Bowl Sunday is the country’s 'second-largest food consumption day' (right after Thanksgiving)," reports CaLea Johnson for Mental Floss. "But which foods and desserts do Americans love most for the event?" Researchers mapped the answers state-by-state.

With China in control of much of the world's critical minerals and recently restricting exports to the U.S., that's causing “Western scientists and companies to embark on increasingly novel ways to develop alternative sources,” reports Jon Emont of The Wall Street Journal. One relatively inexpensive idea is to harvest plants grown in mineral-rich soil and purify them into nickel concentrate, which can create stainless steel and other metals.

Americans are waking up to all-time-high coffee prices.
(Coffeeness photo)

Some may blame President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff threat on Colombian products for the jump in coffee prices; however, coffee costs began climbing long before the Trump-Petro dustup. “Coffee futures have been elevated since 2011 as bad weather has plagued key coffee-growing regions like Brazil and Colombia," reports Vanessa Yurkevich of CNN. "And the region’s next crop isn’t expected to produce a bigger yield. . . . With or without a threatened tariff, coffee prices are high and will likely continue rising.”

How the new administration is addressing illegal immigration to the U.S. is hashed over by news media multiple times a day. However, the discussions toss around a lot of terms many Americans may not fully understand. Two scholars of immigration "who closely follow public discussions about immigration policy, trends and terminology" help de-mystify immigration terms, write Ernesto Castañeda and Daniel Jenks for The Conversation. "Understanding the many different immigration terms – some technical, some not – can help people better understand immigration news. While not an exhaustive list, there are 10 important terms to know."

Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft.
(Photo by Bryson Beaver, Unsplash)

When President Donald Trump ordered the name of North America’s tallest peak to be "changed from Denali back to Mount McKinley in honor of the nation’s 25th president, William McKinley, he put the spotlight on the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. . . . A little-known panel made up of officials from several federal agencies that has been in existence since 1890," reports Susan Montoya Bryan of The Associated Press. Under the Trump administration, the board "will have new members, but the makeup will be the same with representatives from several agencies ranging from the Interior and Commerce departments to the Post Office and the Library of Congress. Even the CIA plays a role when the board considers place names beyond U.S. borders."

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December set off a maelstrom of emotion from Americans sick of dealing with the U.S. health care system. The shooting compelled many U.S. physicians to speak out about what they think are the systemic issues with U.S. health care companies. Their video discussion by The Wall Street Journal is shared here.