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.
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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.
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Looked at another way, we are not #1 for health care costs. See https://wallethub.com/edu/states-where-people-spend-the-most-least-on-health-insurance/145713 to delve into the details.
Cost of insurance as a % of median* household income places West Virginia at the #1 spot and Alaska at #6.
1. West Viginia 20.86%
2. Vermont 19.05%
3. Wyoming 17.16%
4. Arkansas 14.87%
5. Mississippi 14.05%
6. Alaska 13.18%
*Median household income is the exact midpoint of all household incomes in a given area. When you line up every household from lowest to highest earning, exactly half the households make more than this amount and half make less. Because it identifies the “middle” income, it is often considered a much more accurate reflection of what a typical family earns than the “average” (mean) income.
How do they come up with the average income per family in Alaska? We don’t pay income tax, so how do they come up with an actual number?
Comes down to who you choose to believe, Wallethub whose sources are U.S. Census Bureau and the Kaiser Family Foundation or the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis…
Consider choosing a faith based healthcare plan that are 70% cheaper than most all healthcare plans, based on Kaiser Institute’s national survey.DAve Ramsey, Financial Peace University. recommends these. Could choice of healthcare, cause the state budget go from red to black? We save 8,000/yr. since we switched to a faith based healthcare. !
Yeah, except pre-existing are usually excluded, and there is no legal contract, so your bills may or may not get paid. And there’s usually a cap with HCSM’s, so if God forbid you come down with cancer or something and your bills are over that cap, you’re screwed.
Look into Samaritan Ministries and consider a Christian HealthShare rather than insurance. You’ll save $$ and you’ll always know where your money is going. And, you lift each other up in prayer! You can help carry each other’s burdens, both financially and spiritually.
HCSM’s are cheaper for a reason. Pre existing conditions are not covered. They are also not legally contracted to pay out claims, so you may or may not have to pay. And they cap it, so if something should happen and your medical bills hit their chosen cap, they won’t pay & there is nothing you can do about it. Quite risky.