You're personally paying more for health services. But good luck trying to shop around for a better deal. <\/p>\n
A new analysis finds that Americans with health insurance through their employers paid almost 7 percent more for out-of-pocket medical costs in 2013 compared to 2012rising from an average of $662 per person annually to $707. <\/p>\n
The increase comes as more people are enrolled in so-called high-deductible health plans, which require them to directly bear a larger share of health costs. <\/p>\n
The same study by the Health Care Cost Institute also looked at what people paid out-of-pocket for services in nine states, and found a wide range of costs.<\/p>\n
Some people paid less out-of-pocket for certain services, while others getting the same services in the same state paid significantly more, according to HCCI. The study examined variations in costs of five services: new doctor visits, cataract removal, colonoscopies, lower leg MRIs and pregnancy ultrasounds. <\/p>\n
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\"Some may interpret the out-of-pocket variations as discouraging, but the results demonstrate that there are real opportunities for consumers to save on health-care spending,\" noted the HCCI report entitled \"Shopping for Health Care Makes 'Cents' for Consumers.\"<\/p>\n
Those opportunities come from discretionary medical services that can be scheduled by patients, and which they can theoretically shop for based on price.<\/p>\n
HCCI's Executive Director David Newman said, \"I'm not going to be shopping for the ambulance and the hospital during my heart attack.\" <\/p>\n
Nationally, on average, the prices people directly paid for a new doctor's visit varied by $19, according the report. <\/p>\n
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