A new Health Care Cost Institute report reveals that rising prices were the chief driver of growth in spending for children's healthcare in 2014.
That same year saw a widespread drop in children's use of medical care: physician appointments, emergency room visits, hospital admissions and prescription drug use all decreased significantly, the study found.
Here are five findings from the study.
1. Per capita spending on healthcare for children covered by employer-sponsored insurance grew an annual average of 5.1 percent per year between 2010 and 2014, reaching $2,660 in 2014.
2. Out-of-pocket spending on children covered by employer-sponsored insurance increased an average annual 5.5 percent between 2012 and 2014, to $472.
3. Prices fueled much of the spending growth in 2014. Prices were hiked up most notably for:
- Brand-name prescriptions, which more than doubled in price from $7 per filled day in 2010 to $16 per day in 2014
- Surgery, which increased more than 50 percent from $35,423 in 2010 to $53,372 by 2014
- ER visits, which increased an average of $298 between 2010 and 2014
4. At the same time spending increased, there was a general decline in the use of healthcare services. In 2014, there were 3,228 physician visits per 1,000 children, down slightly from the previous year. Physician visits accounted for 12 percent of the total per capita spending in 2014 ($339 per child), and was the largest share of healthcare spending for the average child.
5. For the study, HCCI also looked at children's healthcare spending trends at the state level in 2014, reporting on Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C. Here is what HCCI found:
- Compared to the national average, babies in Texas had a 60 percent higher use rate of antibiotics while children in Florida visited the ER more often.
- Among the states studied, Arizona had the lowest per capita spending ($2,151 per child in 2014).
- In 2014, Washington, D.C., had the highest rate of spending ($3,040 per capita), but lowest out-of-pocket payments ($362).
- High spending in Washington, D.C., was in part driven by an increase in the number of hospital admissions for sick newborns. Additionally, Washington, D.C. had the most ER visits as compared to the other states examined.
- Wisconsin had higher per capita and out-of-pocket spending than the national average in every year studied — reaching $3,017 per capita in 2014, and $577 in out-of-pocket costs.
The report presents the most updated information on healthcare spending trends for privately insured children under age 19. It is based on fee-for-service claims for 10.2 million children per year who were covered by employer-sponsored insurance. About half of the children in the U.S. were covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2014.