June 5, 2025
OHA reports track health care spending to help develop solutions
SALEM, Ore. – A pair of new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reports find health care costs continue to grow faster than the state and national economies. Meanwhile, a new committee is launching to identify effective ways to make health care more affordable for Oregonians.
One
report notes 14.5% of Oregonians delayed or avoided health care due to cost in 2024. This was even more common in Southwest Oregon, where about one in five people delayed care, and dental care was most likely to be deferred statewide.
The second
report finds that total health care expenditures increased 5.2% per Oregonian between 2022 and 2023, exceeding the state's 3.4% goal by the highest amount since OHA began collecting data for the
Sustainable Health Care Cost Growth Target program in 2018.
“High health care costs hurt everyone through increased health insurance premiums and copays, which make it difficult for families to afford essential things like housing and groceries," said OHA Health Policy and Analytics Director Clare Pierce-Wrobel. “Oregon's Health Care Cost Growth Target has established a shared goal to limit spending, but we need to do more. The new
Committee on Health Care Affordability has an important charge to help identify bold solutions to this pressing problem.
The Oregon Health Policy Board, a citizen-led body that oversees OHA, is creating the Committee on Health Care Affordability and its related
Industry Advisory Committee. The board will appoint the first members of both committees at its June 10 meeting, which will also include the Health Care Cost Growth Target program's annual
public hearing. Members of the public are invited to share their concerns and experiences with health care costs at the hearing. Email written testimony or sign up to speak at HealthCare.CostTarget@oha.oregon.gov.
Real-world impacts
The first report, titled “Impact of Health Care Costs on People in Oregon, 2024," draws from a variety of sources such as OHA's
Oregon Health Insurance Survey.
While 14.5% of Oregonians delayed or avoided health care due to cost in 2024, the report notes that delaying care isn't always an option, “as medical conditions or injuries when left untreated can become life-threatening." Even though a record 97% of people in Oregon had health insurance in 2024, 11% were unable to pay their medical bills in the past year.
“For people with limited assets, as well as those with considerable medical needs, debt can accumulate over time," the report reads. “Even a small, unexpected medical bill can become unaffordable.
For the more than half of insured Oregonians who have commercial health insurance, the average employer-sponsored family plan cost $22,796 in 2023. People paid almost 10% of the median household income to cover their employer-sponsored family plan's premiums and deductibles in 2023. While that's an improvement over 2019, when 13.5% of the state's medium household income paid for family coverage, the report notes the change was likely due to growing incomes rather than declining insurance costs.
The report also notes Oregon households spent 21% of their 2023 budget on health-related expenses, more than any other category including housing, utilities and fuel. This includes everything household members directly spent on their health care as well as money spent by third parties such as employer contributions to their care. Average health care spending reached $9,255 per person in Oregon during 2023.
Costs growing slower in Oregon
The second report, titled "Health Care Cost Growth Trends in Oregon, 2022-2023," tracks the state's progress toward meeting its Health Care Cost Growth Target. The goal of a 3.4% annual average increase per person was established in 2021. Each year, OHA collects and analyzes data from health insurance companies, hospital systems and others to measure what people and organizations in Oregon collectively spend on health care.
Oregon's total health care expenditures grew 5.2% per person between 2022 and 2023, nearly two percentage points above Oregon's 3.4% goal. Meanwhile, other states recently reported having even higher health care cost growth between 2022 and 2023. For example, Utah had 6.6%, Connecticut 7.8%, Massachusetts 8.6% and Delaware 9.1%.
When looking at Oregon's different insurance markets, the report notes that Medicaid costs grew 9%, Medicare increased 7.8% and commercial grew 6.4% between 2022 and 2023. Total health care expenditures per Oregonian on Medicare – which covers older adults and people with disabilities – was more than double than per person on Medicaid or a commercial plan.
Oregon's health care cost growth was largely driven by increased prices for health services, medication and more, the report concludes. Cost growth for Oregon's Medicaid plan was primarily the result of state policies to permanently increase the state's Medicaid reimbursement rates for behavioral health care and to temporarily increase funding for some hospitals that were hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drugs administered at a doctor's office, also known as medical pharmacy, was the service category with the greatest statewide growth and increased 12.6% between 2022 and 2023. Treatments for cancer and age-related macular degeneration top the list of total dollars Oregonians spent on in-office drugs in 2023.
Later this year, OHA will publish detailed data on how costs grew for individual medical groups, health systems and other provider organizations between 2022 and 2023. OHA will also determine whether insurance companies, health systems and medical groups that exceeded the cost growth target between 2022 and 2023 did so for an acceptable reason. Organizations that exceed the target without an acceptable reason will be required to develop a performance improvement plan.