Healthcare spending for children is rising faster than for the under-65 population as a whole, a new study finds, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The report by the Healthcare Cost Institute (financed by large insurers) said, in the paper’s words, “that the average child (newborn to age 18) in an employer-sponsored health plan accumulated $2,574 in healthcare bills during 2013 — an 18 percent increase compared with 2010.”
Stephen Parente, a healthcare finance expert at the University of Minnesota, told The Star Tribune that results fit with a trend of more children being treated for diabetes, depression and other health problems.