State
BY HANNAH NORTON
About 5.2 million Texans, or 16.7% of the state’s population, did not have health insurance in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Texas’ uninsured rate was higher than any other state in 2024. For years, advocates have called on Texas lawmakers to pass laws to drive down health care costs and improve access to health insurance, according to previous Community Impact reporting. Ahead of the 2027 state legislative session, lawmakers are working to understand: • Why health care costs are rising in Texas and across the nation • The factors that make health care unaffordable • What can be done to rein in prices Texas House and Senate committees held initial hearings on the drivers of high health care costs in April and May. Lawmakers study rising health care costs
Zooming in
Change in U.S. health care costs Since 2000, U.S. health care prices have grown faster than ination.
Medical care
All goods and services
125%
"A family of four who get their coverage from an employer are going to face [health insurance] premiums of about $27,000 a year. Every family is basically buying a new Toyota Corolla worth of health insurance." ZACK COOPER, DIRECTOR OF YALE UNIVERSITY’S HEALTH CARE AFFORDABILITY LAB
121.3%
100%
86.1%
75%
50%
25%
The median Texas household spends about one-third of its income on employer-sponsored health insurance.
0% 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
SOURCES: PETERSON KFF HEALTH SYSTEM TRACKER, THE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOCRACY COMMUNITY IMPACT
More context
monopolies,” Cooper told lawmakers April 30. Sixty-one percent of Texans live in areas “dominated by just a few large hospital systems,” according to the public policy nonpro t Texas 2036. To improve health care a ordability, Texas 2036 recommends that lawmakers work to increase price transparency, strengthen competition among health care providers and incentivize employers to provide low-cost insurance.
The consolidation of hospitals and other health care companies may be part of what’s driving health care price increases, according to Zack Cooper, director of Yale University’s Health Care A ordability Lab. Since 2000, Cooper said there have been more than 1,300 mergers among the nation’s approximately 5,000 hospitals. “Even though we rely on competition to determine the prices that insurers want to pay hospitals, about 21% of hospitals are e ectively
“Many of us know that health care pricing is largely broken, but I think sometimes it’s di cult to know why.” REP. JAMES FRANK, R WICHITA FALLS
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