# Health Insurance can you afford it?



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Reflecting yet another sharp jump in the cost of health insurance, coverage for a family of four has surpassed the income of a minimum-wage earner for the first time, according to a survey released today.

The study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Educational Trust, published each fall before open enrollment season begins, is considered the definitive survey of what coverage will cost workers. 

This year the survey found that average annual premiums for family coverage grew more than 9% since last year to $10,880. A minimum wage worker earns $10,712 before taxes. 

Though the increase is less than the Kaiser survey has found in recent years — the jump was 11% in 2004 — it continues a relentless rise in premiums that is hard on businesses and families alike. 

Rising costs have forced many businesses to stop offering health insurance and has prompted some employees to look for insurance on their own because they can't afford the coverage offered at work. 

"What we are seeing is an unraveling of the way we finance healthcare in the United States," said William Custer, director for the Center for Health Services Research at George State University in Atlanta. "It is coming apart at the edges, and those edges are small business and low-wage workers. The levees are breaking." 

According to Kaiser, the number of businesses offering health insurance to their workers continues to decline, with just three out of five businesses offering insurance to their workers. That's just 60% in 2005, down from 69% in 2000, the study found. The drop stems almost entirely from small businesses dropping coverage because of cost concerns. 

"When we consider that it is small business that drives the economy — to have that engine resting on the backs of millions of uninsured workers is a bad proposition for the U.S. economy," said Peter Lee, president of the San Francisco-based Pacific Business Group on Health, an alliance of employers that buys insurance for big companies. 

"This has to be seen as a wake-up call to policymakers and healthcare providers, as it puts an increasing burden on an already frayed safety net." 

This year's increase in health insurance premiums is more than three times the growth in workers' earnings, which was 2.7% over the same period. Since 2000, premiums have gone up 73%. 

For family coverage, the average worker paid $2,713 toward premiums for family coverage in 2005, or 26% of the total health premium, the Kaiser survey found. Workers are now paying on average $1,094 more in premiums for family coverage than they did in 2002. 

The survey also found that 20% of employers who offer health insurance now offer high-deductible plan options. Large firms, with more than 5,000 workers, are more likely to offer a high-deductible health plan option, with 33% of those saying they offered such plans.

Still, relatively few workers are enrolled in these so-called consumer-driven plans, with just 2.6% of non-federal workers participating, the study found. 

"We're in a new universe of healthcare coverage, where it is a commodity only for the wealthy," said Jerry Flanagan, with the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica consumer rights group.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-091405health_lat,0,4868032.story?coll=la-story-footer


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Interesting.

I myself hardly use health insurance, but when both my kid's were born lol even after insurance coverage i still had to pay over 2k each kid lol. It's big help for those "if's" like car insurance lol. But price is absolutly outragoues but then again so are hospital bills, 8k for a kid to be born.....


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

My wife had surgery awhile back. We got the bill and the the techs were down at $97 a hour. When they found out we had insurance they rebilled it at $40 a hour. And we actually didn't have to pay any because of the insurance was covering it. 

Does that seem fair? If you dont have insurance they bill you over 2x what the insurance companies pay.


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