Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the 2022 Milliman Medical Index (MMI), which measures healthcare costs for individuals and families receiving coverage from an employer-sponsored preferred provider plan (PPO).

“After years of trending in a constantly upward direction, healthcare costs took a detour from the norm in 2020 and 2021,” said Dave Liner, co-author of the Milliman Medical Index. “After declining for the first time in 2020, and then climbing by an unprecedented 13% in 2021, healthcare trends this year have stabilized at 4.6%.”

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“Most years, healthcare costs climb faster than any other costs affecting families,” said Mike Gaal, co-author of the Milliman Medical Index. “In 2022, for the first time in the 17-year history of our study, the healthcare trend is less than the overall inflation rate.”

In 2022, healthcare costs for our hypothetical family of four reached $30,260 while costs for the average person reached $6,859. While these are averages, the MMI allows for greater specificity thanks to an interactive tool that allows people to calculate costs for themselves or their own family. To use the interactive tool, go to http://us.milliman.com/MMIfamilies/.

“The MMI is unique in its ability to assess current year costs and trends, and because it reconciles to the most comprehensive dataset available as experience becomes available,” said Doug Norris, co-author of the Milliman Medical Index. “In spring of 2020 we correctly recognized rapidly declining utilization of healthcare services. As time has gone on, we have gotten a better understanding of the volatility at play as the pandemic took hold—and then again as utilization and costs shot upward in 2021.”

One of the things that makes the MMI unique is that it calculates both employer and employee contributions to healthcare costs, including out-of-pocket costs incurred at the point of care.

“As healthcare costs go up this year, employees and employers are shouldering a fairly event split of the increase,” said Paul Houchens, co-author of the MMI. “Employee costs are up 4.7% and employer costs are up 5.3%.”

“It’s been a wild ride these last few years but in 2021 the MMI finally surpasses $30,000 for a hypothetical American family,” said Annie Mann, co-author of the MMI. “It was only ten years ago that the MMI surpassed $20,000.”

To view the complete MMI, go to http://us.milliman.com/MMI/.