State Health Care Spending Project Reports

The State Health Care Spending Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, helped policymakers better understand how much money states spend on health care, how and why that amount has changed over time, and which policies have contained costs while maintaining or improving health outcomes.

Through a series of reports examining an array of states’ health care expenditures, the project identified evidence-based strategies that have helped control state health care expenses while maintaining or improving health outcomes.

State Retiree Health Plan Spending
This report, a first-of-its-kind effort, provides data on state OPEB liabilities—the cost in today’s dollars of benefits to be paid to current workers and retirees over future years—and funding trends and how they are affected by aspects of state retiree health plans.
Report

State Employee Health Plan Spending
Researchers analyzed state employee health insurance plan data and examined the factors driving spending on state employee health care—and states’ ability to influence these factors.
Report | Press Release | FAQ (Backgrounder)

State Health Care Spending on Medicaid
This report focuses on state spending on Medicaid, including trends in spending and enrollment, and the anticipated effects of the Affordable Care Act.
Report | Downloadable Data | Interactive | State Fact Sheets

State Prison Health Care Spending
The report analyzes key factors driving prison health care costs and outlines strategies states are using to manage costs while preserving health care quality for incarcerated offenders.
Report | Press Release | Data Visualization | State Fact Sheets
Related Report: Managing Prison Health Care Spending

Tracking Key Health Indicators
To provide context for each state’s spending on health care services, this brief examines 20 health indicators in five areas to provide a snapshot of each state’s population. Those areas include demographics and the uninsured, health status of residents, vital statistics, prevalence of disease and health risk factors, and prevention and treatment.
Report | Downloadable Data | Interactive | State Fact Sheets

Children’s Health Insurance Program
The Children’s Health Insurance Program, a state-federal partnership, provides health insurance to millions of children. Researchers examined the program and how it is administered in the states, including factors driving program variation, the landscape of children’s health insurance, and the ways the plan will change with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Report 

Substance Use Disorders and the Role of the States
As federal, state, and local policymakers address the country’s substance use disorder challenges, this report is intended to help them better understand disease prevalence, treatment practices, and spending trends.
Report

Mental Health and the Role of the States
This report is intended to help federal, state, and local policymakers working to address the country’s mental health challenges to better understand their prevalence, treatment, and funding trends.
Report

State Health Care Spending
Health care spending presents a complicated set of challenges and financial burdens for states, whose obligations range from caring for the neediest residents—those who cannot afford health care or health insurance on their own—to providing coverage for state employees and retirees who have negotiated it as part of their compensation packages.
Report