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SALT LAKE CITY — A collaborative with a goal to improve health care in Utah announced plans to study what is driving the cost of health care up and increasing spending on Thursday.
"Health care spending is rising and continues to take up a larger proportion of state, employer and family budgets," said Dr. Sri Bose, the One Utah Health Collaborative's director of research.
She said the average employee contribution for a premium family plan in Utah increased by 35% over five years from 2017 to 2022, outpacing the average wage increase which was 25% in the same period.
"For Utah's employers, families and economy to thrive, we need to measure spending and its trends to ensure we have a sustainable and affordable health care system for all," Bose said.
The One Utah Health Collaborative was announced by Gov. Spencer Cox in 2022 and is a nonprofit aimed at improving Utah's health care through a 15-year initiative. The collaborative is designed to use input from key leaders and innovation to reach a model health care system.
Thursday's announcement involved the formation of a Technical Advisory Group with nine major insurers to provide data and estimate the total health care spending in Utah and trends. A statement from the collaborative said the members of the advisory group come from organizations that represent over 95% of Utahns with health insurance.
Jaime Wissler, the collaborative's executive director, said understanding the rate of health care spending growth, as well as what is driving the cost, is "critical."
"We will evaluate and analyze this and additional data with our stakeholders to better achieve our mission of affordable and accessible health care that improves the quality of life for all. This work will help identify what we can best work on together. We are grateful for the incredible support and involvement," he said.
The insurance companies participating in the technical advisory group include Aetna, Cigna, Molina Healthcare of Utah, Public Employment Health Plan, or PEHP, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, Select Health, UnitedHealthcare, Utah Medicaid and University of Utah Health Plans.
This technical advisory group is a subset of a task force launched in 2023 to address health care spending. The statement said data collection will take place in spring and summer, and a report will be released during 2024.
