Nowhere in the country do Americans spend more on health care than in Alaska.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Alaskans shouldered more than $14,000 a year to pay for health care costs in 2024. That’s nearly twice what residents in Utah and Nevada pay. The national average is $9,700 per person.

But it wasn’t always that way. According to the Alaska Policy Forum, Alaska’s per capita health care spending used to hover near the national average in the early 2000s. At that time, costs began to rise, and they have not abated.

The main drivers of health care expenses in Alaska include high labor costs, lack of competition caused by state regulations that discourage competition and elevated Medicaid costs.

For years, the Policy Forum has been calling for health care reforms to encourage market competition, greater efficiency and expanded access. Specifically, the group has urged lawmakers to repeal Alaska’s onerous “certificate-of-need laws,” which require healthcare providers to obtain state approval before they can build or expand new facilities, add beds for intensive care, acute rehab, obstetric, surgical or pediatric, purchase major equipment like MRI or CT scanners, or offer certain services.

In fact, existing providers can and often do oppose new applications for expanded medical services, claiming there is no need for alternative options.

While the original goal of certificate-of-need laws was to control costs by preventing unnecessary duplication of services, free market critics like Alaska Policy Forum and others have long argued that these laws have utterly failed to achieve their goals, leaving remote Alaskans with limited options, outside of expensive flights to Anchorage, Fairbanks or other larger hubs.

Click here to support the Alaska Watchman.