Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Health Insurance Still Plummeting, Pt.2 – How was the group categorized?

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One would expect that the segment worst off would be the poor, having incomes not above twice the Federal poverty line of $20,000 annual income, meaning those households with annual incomes below $40,000. What is striking is that this isn’t even the worst-off group. Those even worse off are the households with incomes above $40,000 (very crudely labeled ‘upper-income’). President of the Commonwealth Fund, Karen Davis assesses "Lack of insurance is only one part of the problem, as even the insured have serious gaps in coverage." She continues with the analogy that having health insurance is only the ticket in the door to health care. Once inside the door, the reality is that everything is so expensive that health insurance becomes about as useful as holding the ticket, hoping for a door-prize. The coverage’s only begin to cover the charges that are racked up. This detrimental trend underscores the great disparity with which income increases have so woefully lagged behind the soaring expenses of health care. To see how out-of-control this situation is, consider that, from 2001 till now, income has only risen be 17% with inflation rising by 19%. Now, here comes the bomb – costs for family coverage Premiums for health insurance have leaped a full 78%! These figures were provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation. These findings were drawn from the following criteria:

• They must have had health insurance the whole year long.
• Their out-of-pocket expenses for medical, prescription, dental and vision must have amounted to at least 10% of their annual household income (5% for low-income).
• Deductibles of 5% of annual household income or more (due to the “potential financial exposure” this causes).

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