"These rapidly rising costs of health services underlie growing premiums and deductibles for people with employer health insurance," the authors write.

Costs associated with many common health services — including full knee replacements and laparoscopic appendectomies — have risen more rapidly than general economic inflation. A new analysis by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and Kaiser Family Foundation's Health System Tracker cites such disparities while also noting geographic variations in the cost of the same health services.

For example, the average cost of a hospital admission among large employer plans increased by roughly $10,000 (68%) from 2008 to 2018. Meanwhile, the average cost for a lower back MRI was nearly three times higher in the Houston area ($1,106) than in the Las Vegas area ($404).