The study authors examined healthcare spending in 2014 among 42,936 employees of four self-insured employers in private health insurance exchanges. The researchers found:
1. The employees in the lowest wage group accounted for half of the usage of preventative care.
2. The lowest-wage group employees reported twice as many readmissions as the top wage earning employees.
3. Employees in the lowest wage group had four times higher rate of avoidable readmissions and three times higher rate of emergency department visits when compared with the top wage earners.
4. The average total healthcare spending per patient in the highest wage group was $5,074, only slightly higher than those in the lowest wage group at $4,835.
5. The middle two wage groups reported $3,952 and $3,987 in healthcare spending per patient per year.
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