State Health Compare

The rising cost of health insurance in the U.S. has made it increasingly difficult for many individuals and families to afford coverage alongside other routine expenses such as housing, automobile loans, and student debt repayment. Amid growing concerns over the financial strain of health care affordability, high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) have become a popular type of private health insurance coverage. What is a high deductible health plan? As explained by SHADAC, a high-deductible health plan “typically has a low premium (or none at all) but, as the name suggests, a higher deductible, and higher out-of-pocket maximum compared to a traditional health plan.” 

While these plans can help to reduce health care costs with lower or no monthly premiums, those enrolled in HDHPs will need to pay out of pocket for health care expenses until that deductible is reached—which can mean thousands of dollars spent before insurance begins to cover costs. Given recent increases in cost of living and other ESI costs like premiums, many people could be looking for places to cut down on health care costs, which could mean turning to something like a high deductible plan. Tracking HDHP enrollment data can help policymakers, researchers, and others to understand trends in health care coverage affordability, and how it may relate to coverage rates and recent policy changes. 

State Health Compare provides annual, state-level rates of high deductible health plan enrollment using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC). This measure can be broken down by firm size: Fewer Than 50 Employees and Greater Than 50 Employees.