Cost of Health Insurance up Again

[dollardaze]

A survey of over 2,800 randomly selected companies with 3 or more employees was conducted from January to May of this year. The survey has found that health insurance premiums and deductibles are up again this year. These costs are now more than double those costs from 1999.

In a poll which was conducted in August of this year, one in four American families said that paying for health care and health insurance, is "a serious problem" for them.

This year's increase in the costs of health insurance was a relatively small 5% more than last year's cost. This means that the average American worker pays over $3,300 out of their paychecks to cover health insurance premiums this year. The cost in 1999? $1,543. Employers are also paying more, with the average employer contribution being over $9,300, as compared to $4,247 in 1999.

Workers are paying more money, but getting less benefit. Deductibles and co-pays also cost more. Last year, 12% of our nation's workers faced deductibles of at least $1,000 - this year 18% of all workers are facing these deductibles and up to 35% of workers in smaller firms (3-199 employees).

A steady growth has been seen in "consumer-directed plans". These plans are those in which workers and employers contribute to a health savings account (HSA) or have a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). These have lower costs to employers and higher costs to workers. Small firms are more likely to offer these plans which have an average general deductible for single coverage of over $2,000 for HSAs and over $1500 for HRAs.

The CEO for the company which did the survey said that health insurance is growing steadily less comprehensive, and it's no wonder that families are counting the costs of health care as one of their top out-of-pocket issues.

[carol b]

They got that right. We just had to do the Cobra continuance which allows use to keep the same insurance we had before he left this job.
The cost is a whopping $957.00 a month. It is well worth it though considers that without the insurance my sons bills would come completely out of pocket and he is somewhere around $125,000 just for hospital stays for chemotherapy. Total I would say is around $200,000 with his initial surgery and labratory tests ecetera.
I would rather pay this amount than that any day of the week.

[moneysense]

What bothers me about health insurance is the fact that the deductible is so high. Shoot, outside of a round of bronchitis once a year, I dont get sick much, and very rarely need to see a doctor for anything.

We cant afford health insurance, but for the ones that do have it, why dont the insurance companies award their clients for not getting sick or injured? This could cause some savings perhaps, on the premiums etc. And could be a big boost to ones budget each month.

Car insurance companies give you a good deal on not having any wrecks, so why cant health insurers do the same thing when we dont get sick?