Many Insured US Residents Struggle Paying For Medical Expenses
In addition
to increasing the number of uninsured, the "economic slowdown" also
is "threatening millions of people who have insurance" but are
underinsured or are struggling to afford their premiums, copayments and other
out-of-pocket expenses, the New York
Times
reports. Since 2001, an employee's average annual premium cost for family
health coverage has nearly doubled from $1,800 to $3,300, yet at the same time,
"incomes have come nowhere close to keeping up," according to the Times.
The share of income that the average U.S. household spends on health care has
risen by about 12%, and health care expenses now account for nearly one-fifth
of the average household's total spending, according to the consulting and
accounting firm Deloitte. Reprinted
with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up
for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily Health Policy
Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family
Foundation. All rights reserved.
As a result, many of the 158 million U.S. residents with
employer-sponsored coverage "are struggling to meet medical expenses that
are much higher than they used to be." Some people are forced to choose
between a routine visit to a physician and basic expenses, according to the
Times. In addition, many people's coverage "may not adequately
protect them from the financial shock" of an emergency department visit or
a major surgery, the Times reports.
According to Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, companies and lawmakers have yet
to address what effect the economic slowdown will have on workers' medical
care. Ted Nussbaum, a benefits consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and other experts say it is
unlikely that significant numbers of employers will entirely drop workers' health
coverage, though a weak economy could prompt many of them to shift to
consumer-driven plans, which generally require workers to contribute a greater
share of their medical costs.
Darling said, "It's a bad-news situation when an individual or household
has to pay out of pocket three, four or five times as much for their health
plan as they would have at the time of the last recession," adding,
"Americans have been giving their pay raise to the health care
system" (Abelson/Freudenheim, New York Times, 5/4).
|
Source: kaisernetwork.org on May 05 2008 12:22:09 |