claim: "health insurance companies' costs are only 4 percent of all health care spending."
author: america's health insurance plans
evidence_1: between 1960 and 1965, health care spending increased by an average of 8.9  percent a year. that's because health insurance expanded. as it covered more  people, the demand for health care services rose. by 1965, households paid out- of-pocket for 44 percent of all medical expenses. health insurance paid for 24 ...
evidence_2: in 2002, the top 5 percent of the population accounted for 49 percent of health  care expenditures. of people ... the study used insurance company data on 3.75  million enrollees and data from the medicare current beneficiary survey. it found  that 8 ...
evidence_3: in 2015, u.s. health care spending increased 5.8 percent to reach $3.2 trillion, or  $9,990 per person. the ... spending in 2015 was driven by stronger growth in  spending for private health insurance, hospital care, physician and ... price  growth was just 0.9 percent in 2015, which was the lowest rate of growth since  1998.
evidence_4: may 1, 2012 ... the annual percent increase for all sources of funding except out-of-pocket  declined in 2010, although the cumulative increase since 2000 was less for out- of-pocket than for medicare, medicaid, and private health insurance. of the major  sources of national health spending, only out-of-pocket spending ...
evidence_5: when choosing a plan, it's a good idea to think about your total health care costs,  not just the bill (the “premium”) you pay to your insurance company every month.  other amounts, sometimes called “out-of-pocket” costs, have a big impact on your  total spending on health care – sometimes more than the premium itself.