A weekly roundup of public health news
Rising healthcare spending drives almost all insurance premium increases
Nearly all of the recent increases in U.S. health insurance premiums are linked to growth in healthcare spending, a new study in JAMA Health Forum shows.
Published September 4, the research found rising health spending — defined as insurer payments for covered healthcare claims — accounted for 91% of increases in insurance premiums from 2011 to 2024.
During that period, average premiums for people with private insurance rose 78%, while healthcare costs paid by insurers grew even faster, rising 84%. If premiums had risen at the same rate as overall inflation, they would only have increased about 40%, researchers said.
Premium growth varied widely by state, increasing about 11% in Massachusetts and 164% in Mississippi.
By 2024, average premiums for private health insurance coverage — including employer-sponsored and individual plans — reached about $7,150 per person, ranging from more than $5,600 in Massachusetts to $11,440 in Alaska.
While the study did not examine specific reasons for increased healthcare spending, previous research has cited rising prescription drug prices, higher hospital costs, advances in medical technology and growth in the older adult population as factors.
The price increases come as health insurance consumes a growing share of household budgets. Affordability is a concern for people with both individual and employer-sponsored coverage. Nearly half of people who buy insurance directly from an insurer have reported difficulty affording their monthly premiums, while about 40% of workers worry about affording premiums for coverage through their jobs.
Increases in employer-sponsored insurance premiums have been linked with lower wages and reduced employment as employers absorb higher healthcare costs.
AC cuts heat deaths by half, but access not universal
As extreme heat becomes more frequent, home air conditioning can drastically cut risks for related deaths, a new study says. But millions of Americans lack AC.
Home AC use prevented nearly 5,300 heat deaths a year in the U.S. from 2010 to 2020, reducing the nation’s heat-related death toll by more than half, according to the August 31 study in Nature Health. AC use was most likely to prevent people from dying in Florida and the Southwest and Gulf Coast regions.
Although AC has a major impact, tens of millions of Americans do not benefit from the appliance. About 10% of U.S. households nationally lack AC, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Many of those are concentrated in parts of the U.S. that are experiencing unprecedentedly high heat. In Oregon — where 100 people died during a 2022 heat wave — almost 20% of households lack AC, for example.
Across the U.S. at the local level, people who live in poorer neighborhoods are more likely to lack AC. Affordability is the main barrier, a report released last month by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability finds. In 2024, nearly a quarter of U.S. households were unable to pay an energy bill in full at least once during the prior year.
Depending on their fuel source, home type and where they live, some people pay more for energy than others, limiting their use of AC. People in rural areas pay more than rural residents, for example, while Californians pay more than North Dakotans, the report noted.
Extremely hot days and heat waves have become significantly more frequent, intense and longer-lasting across the U.S. since the mid-20th century because of climate change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Despite that, a May study from Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communication found that only about 35% of Americans are moderately or very worried about extreme heat.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 1,700 people die annually from heat in the U.S., an investigation by Boston University School of Public Health and NPR that was released August 31 estimates about 9,000 deaths a year are driven by heat.
Paint chemicals can circulate in indoor air for months
Potentially harmful chemicals from certain solvent-based paints can linger in indoor air for months, according to new research in Environment and Health.
Indoor use of solvent-based paints containing para-chlorobenzotrifluoride, also known as PCBTF, can release harmful chemicals, according to the study, which was published August 27. PCBTF is used in paints, inks, coatings and adhesives, often to make them flow better, and in the production of herbicides, dyes and pharmaceuticals.
Researchers found PCBTF can break down in air into new chemicals that are potentially more toxic than the original solvent. Health risks were predicted to peak during the first week after use, though several toxic chemicals could persist in indoor air for up to two months.
To minimize risks to workers and others in spaces where PCBTF paints are applied, ventilation should be used for at least eight weeks, researchers advised.
In April, California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a ban on PCBTF paints in metal coating work. The chemical serves as a paint solvent and thinner in automotive finishes, potentially putting workers at risk. Under the rule, which could influence use nationwide, PCBTF paints will be phased out from metal work starting July 2027.
Because it does not deplete the ozone, PCBTF is exempt from volatile organic compound regulations set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal occupational exposure limits are also lacking, despite PCBTF being identified as carcinogenic in 2020.
Other recent public health news of note:
• Up to 10 million people may soon lose their Medicaid coverage because of new work requirements and eligibility changes, a new study published August 29 in JAMA Health Forum predicts. Nearly 20% of Medicaid-eligible adults in states that expanded the program are in danger of not meeting minimum work hours once new rules take effect next year. Work reporting requirements are expected to be one of main drivers of disenrollment, the research said.
• The world is on course to crossing a key threshold in global warming within the next few years, putting humans at risk of severe climate impacts, a new report from the U.N. Environment Program warns. Released September 2, the report says it is now likely “unavoidable” that the world will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold set under the Paris Agreement. In 2015, 195 nations agreed to work to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era, while striving to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. Crossing that mark increases the risk of melting glaciers that will raise sea levels, severe droughts that will threaten food supplies and more frequent heat waves that will end lives, among other impacts.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.
