This study examines the impact of U.S. health policies on out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures, revealing that certain policies are notably more effective in reducing costs for individuals. The regression model explains 99.5% of the variation in out-of-pocket expenses (R² = 0.995). Key findings show the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as the most impactful, reducing costs by $0.43 per unit (β = -0.426, p = 0.007), followed by COVID-19 Response and Health Policy Changes (CRHPC), which reduces costs by $0.16 (β = -0.162, p = 0.019). Government Expenditure on Health, however, has a positive impact, increasing out-of-pocket spending by $0.69 per dollar spent (β = 0.695, p = 0.001), suggesting inefficiencies. Inflation also drives costs up, with each 1% increase resulting in an additional $0.02 out-of-pocket (β = 0.017, p = 0.032). The findings recommend focusing on high-impact policies like the IRA and CRHPC, while reevaluating lower-impact programs to optimize resource allocation and control healthcare inflation.

Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14539753

Health Policies, Out-of-Pocket Expenditure, Inflation, Reforms JEL Codes: I18, I13, H51, E31, H75

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