A patient’s out-of-pocket hospital stay for major health expenses can cost more than average rent in the U.S.

In a study titled Out-of-Pocket Spending for Hospitalizations Among Nonelderly Adults, researchers from the University of Michigan set out to evaluate the out-of-pocket costs for a patient and how the price varied over time, and also by patients’ characteristics, the region they lived in, and the type of insurance they had.

Information from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2013 was obtained for adults between the ages of 18 and 64. The researchers analyzed 7.3 million hospitalized individuals using data from insurance companies Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Humana, and found that the average cost of a hospital stay, that may include inpatient care, reached upward of $1,000 in 2013.
The Department of Numbers reported that U.S. rent in 2009 was $956 with a median of $909, and in 2013, the average was $960 with a median of $903.

The image below illustrates the rent history of the U.S. from 2005 to 2014.


From 2009 to 2013, the total cost per inpatient hospitalization increased by 37 percent, from $738 to $1,013, after the numbers were adjusted for inflation. The rise, according to the announcement, was mainly because of deductibles, which increased by 86 percent, from $145 to $270.

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