David Rousseau

A Snapshot of Cancer Spending and Outcomes

This Visualizing Health Policy infographic provides details on cancer spending and outcomes in the United States. The US cancer mortality rate, 203 deaths per 100 000 population, was slightly lower than in comparable countries in 2010. Among cancers, lung cancer is the largest contributor to disease burden for both men and women. The United States spent

Eligibility and Coverage Trends in Employer-Sponsored Insurance

124 billion to treat cancer in 2012, which accounted for about 7% of the nation’s disease-based health expenditures. However, growth in cancer spending contributed slightly more than 6% to the nation’s medical services expenditure growth between 2000 and 2012, while the top 3 diseases contributed 36%. During that time, per-capita spending on cancer increased 5%, which was slightly lower than the average for all diseases. Cancer medications were among the top 3 for specialty drug spending in 2015, behind medications for inflammatory conditions and multiple sclerosis.

Participation of Plans and Providers in Medicaid and SCHIP Managed Care

This Visualizing Health Policy infographic looks at eligibility and coverage trends in employer-sponsored health insurance. Since 2000, the share of workers covered by employers’ health benefits at both offering and nonoffering firms has dropped to 56%, with the biggest decrease among employees working for small firms (3-199 workers). Among people younger than 65 years, those with lower incomes continued to be less likely to have coverage from an employer-sponsored health plan, as has been the trend since 1999. In 2015, larger firms were more likely than smaller ones to offer health benefits, as were organizations with more higher-wage employees, fewer lower-wage employees, and fewer workers 26 years or younger. Most large employers offered coverage to spouses and other dependents, while fewer than half of these firms offered coverage to same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partners. Few firms took action in 2015 in response to the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, including changing some jobs from part-time to full-time so employees would be eligible for coverage.