A report from the Oregon Health Authority shows health care costs increased 49% from 2013-19, with rising prescription drug prices largely driving the jump. 

Oregonians’ health care costs rose 49% over a six-year period, with the increase largely driven by a huge jump in drug prices, according to a new state report.

Prescription pharmaceutical costs “grew the most of any service category from 2013 to 2019, driven by a 20% annual growth in Medicare” drug costs, according to the report issued by the Oregon Health Authority.

Prescription drug costs rose 185% over the six-year period for patients on Medicare to more than $2,200 per person, annually. Prescription drug costs rose 92.8% for people with commercial insurance and 79.4% for those on Medicaid, according to the state.

Inpatient care remained the most expensive category of health care in Oregon, but prescription drug costs surpassed per-person outpatient care costs in 2018 to become the third-most costly service, according to the state.

Last year, lawmakers in the Democratically controlled Oregon Legislature considered a proposal to set upper limits on how much companies could charge for prescription drugs, but ultimately gutted the plan after the pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $2 million lobbying against it. Lawmakers did pass a bipartisan law to limit patients’ copays for insulin to $900 a year.

After prescription drug costs, the category of professional services, which covers primary care visits and medical procedures at doctors’ offices, was the second major driver of increasing health care costs, according to the state. Those costs increased 75.9% for people with commercial insurance, 56.7% for patients on Medicare and 41.8% for people with Medicaid.

Oregon is tracking health care costs by sector as part of an effort to rein in the growth of health care expenses to a sustainable level. Although the report did not identify a sustainable rate of health care cost increases, the authors noted that health care costs have outpaced growth of wages and the overall economy in Oregon. In 2019, Oregon families with commercial health insurance paid an average of $9,038 for their insurance premium shares and deductibles.