Make Healthcare More Affordable

Every American should have access to high quality, affordable healthcare. The US spends nearly double the average of other comparable nations yet has among the shortest life expectancies of those same comparable countries.

It is the right care at the right price at the right time that is needed to drive a high value, affordable healthcare system.

Healthcare premiums for the average Kentucky family with employer-sponsored insurance exceeds $20,000, $14,000 paid by the employer and $5,000 by the worker. That cost is more than a third of the U.S. median household income and is nearly 40% of median household income in Kentucky.

Employers are the sleeping giants in controlling healthcare costs, and often feel at a loss for how to control their rising healthcare costs year after year. It is critical to activate all size purchasers of healthcare to drive an accountable, high value healthcare system. The KHC works collaboratively with multiple healthcare stakeholders to improve health, price, and waste and move toward a more affordable, value-based healthcare delivery system that does not incentivize volume over value.

The KHC’s key initiatives to drive healthcare affordability include:

Unbridled Costs Cover

Unbridled Costs: The Economic Toll of High Hospital Prices in Kentucky

Policy Brief

Kentucky employers, workers, and families face rising healthcare costs that undermine wages and employer competitiveness. While there are many reasons for high and rising health premiums and out-of-pocket costs for families, this policy brief explores how hospital prices are driving higher costs and describes the quantifiable impact to Kentucky employers and families.

The brief concludes by offering policy reforms to help slow the trend of these rising costs.

As always, the KHC believes that multiple sectors can accomplish more together than alone as we work collaboratively to transform and optimize healthcare for all Kentuckians.