Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Heavy Health Costs,  Pt 1 -- Even for Insured

As if it’s not bad enough that more and more families are losing their health insurance, the economic slowdown is also squeezing those who do have health insurance. They are finding that, either they can’t afford co-payments and deductibles or they find their health insurance inadequate for the medical costs they are confronted with. This is compounded by the increasing premium rates, reduced coverage and higher deductibles that employers are having to revert to. It really gets ugly for the unfortunates who become victims of major surgery or forced emergency room visits. Just one visit to a trauma center can easily result in $20.000 worth of charges, just to be monitored for a few hours. Even if an insurance plan covers that much, it’s very common to find that the plan will consider the billing rates to be above their standard and still pass a sizable portion of that $20,000 bill back to the patient.

Since the recession , starting around 2001, when unemployment soared and wages of rehires and new jobs were significantly reduced, the average pay has only risen by a trickle. The New Deal for these people has been a rise in health insurance premiums that is nearly doubled (from about $1,800 to $3,300 per family). The problem is at least three-pronged: low wages, high insurance costs and very high health care costs. Now, today, the average family’s health expense is approaching 20% or one-fifth of their entire household spending, as reported by the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte. They also report in a recent survey by their health research center that “…only 7 percent of people said they felt financially prepared for their future health care needs”.

…to be continued…