Health Insurance Costs Surpass $20,000 Per Year, Hitting a Record

Sandow

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Ever-rising premiums have pushed some to drop coverage

The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance market entirely.

“It’s as much as buying a basic economy car,” said Drew Altman, chief executive officer of the Kaiser Family Foundation, “but buying it every year.” The nonprofit health research group conducts the yearly survey of coverage that people get through work, the main source of insurance in the U.S. for people under age 65.

While employers pay most of the costs of coverage, according to the survey, workers’ average contribution is now $6,000 for a family plan. That’s just their share of upfront premiums, and doesn’t include co-payments, deductibles and other forms of cost-sharing once they need care.

The seemingly inexorable rise of costs has led to deep frustration with U.S. health care, prompting questions about whether a system where coverage is tied to a job can survive. As premiums and deductibles have increased in the last two decades, the percentage of workers covered has slipped as employers dropped coverage and some workers chose not to enroll. Fewer Americans under 65 had employer coverage in 2017 than in 1999, according to a separate Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of federal data. That’s despite the fact that the U.S. economy employed 17 million more people in 2017 than in 1999.

“What we’ve been seeing is a slow, slow kind of drip-drip erosion in employer coverage,” Altman said.

Employees’ costs for health care are rising more quickly than wages or overall economy-wide prices, and the working poor have been particularly hard-hit. In firms where more than 35% of employees earn less than $25,000 a year, workers would have to contribute more than $7,000 for a family health plan. It’s an expense that Altman calls “just flat-out not affordable.” Only one-third of employees at such firms are on their employer’s health plans, compared with 63% at higher-wage firms, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s data.

The survey is based on responses from more than 2,000 randomly selected employers with at least three workers, including private firms and non-federal public employers.

Deductibles are rising even faster than premiums, meaning that patients are on the hook for more of their medical costs upfront. For a single person, the average deductible in 2019 was $1,396, up from $533 in 2009. A typical household with employer health coverage spends about $800 a year in out-of-pocket costs, not counting premiums, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund. At the high end of the range, those costs can top $5,000 a year.

While raising deductibles can moderate premiums, it also increases costs for people with an illness or who get hurt. “Cost-sharing is a tax on the sick,” said Mark Fendrick, director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan.

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans must cover certain preventive services such as immunizations and annual wellness visits without patient cost-sharing. But patients still have to pay out-of-pocket for other essential care, such as medication for chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, until they meet their deductibles.

Many Americans aren’t prepared for the risks that deductibles transfer to patients. Almost 40% of adults can’t pay an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing or selling an asset, according to a Federal Reserve survey from May.

That’s a problem, Fendrick said. “My patient should not have to have a bake sale to afford her insulin,” he said.

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After years of pushing health-care costs onto workers, some employers are pressing pause. Delta Air Lines Inc. recently froze employees’ contributions to premiums for two years, Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York last week.

“We said we’re not going to raise them. We're going to absorb the cost because we need to make certain people know that their benefits structure is real important,” Bastian said. He said the company’s health-care costs are growing by double-digits. The Atlanta-based company has more than 80,000 employees around the globe.

Some large employers have reversed course on asking workers to take on more costs, according to a separate survey from the National Business Group on Health. In 2020, fewer companies will limit employees to so-called “consumer-directed health plans,” which pair high-deductible coverage with savings accounts for medical spending funded by workers and employers, according to the survey. That will be the only plan available at 25% of large employers in the survey, down from 39% in 2018.

Employers have to balance their desire to control costs with their need to attract and keep workers, said Kaiser’s Altman. That leaves them less inclined to make aggressive moves to tackle underlying medical costs, such as by cutting high-cost hospitals out of their networks. In recent years employers’ health-care costs have remained steady as a share of their total compensation expenses.

“There’s a lot of gnashing of teeth,” Altman said, “but if you look at what they do, not what they say, it’s reasonably vanilla.”

Published by Bloomberg
 
Well, except for our (US) very litigious society. When 1/4 of a doctors income is strictly malpractise insurance, it trickles down. Also, big Pharm must spend billions on research, and also billions on counter lawsuits. I am thoroughly convinced that if we changed our laws regarding frivolous lawsuits, prices would drop exponentially.
But yes, I agree that these prices are ridiculous.
Troy
 
I work in Healthcare. Specifically I am an IT professional in healthcare. The health insurance premiums are rediculous and got out of hand thanks to Obama and his lackies. Prior to those idiots it wasnt near like it is now. I personally witnessed the increase and the panic those idiots caused. SInce we are now obligated to provide free care to any lazy mofo who wants it someone has to pay for it! Welcome to the someones who have to!
 
My Gf and me pay roughly $6,000 in health and dental a year plus we are taxed roughly $6,000 a year each for health care so $18,000 a year for a house of 2 that is soon going to rise drastically in coming years so canada Is on track to catch you.... don't let anyone tell you canadian Healthcare is free and universal it's a lie unless you are a bum on welfare then I'll flip the bill for yah!
 
We have a good free health care system here. No complaints at all.

However…. We also have a tax system where if you earn over a certain amount, you get stung for extra tax if you don’t take out private medical cover. It’s cheaper for my wife and I to pay for it and never use it rather than get stung for extra tax.

I can’t think when (if) we have ever used out private health care, but we’d be out of pocket if we didn’t have it. We pay a monthly fee just to keep our tax bracket lower, and still get full access to the regular free medical system here.

I see the doctor every 6 months for a check up, renew my prescriptions, get flu and Covid jabs, etc etc, been in hospital for a hernia op etc etc, never seen a bill. The public free Medicare system here is pretty good.
 
We have a good free health care system here. No complaints at all.

However…. We also have a tax system where if you earn over a certain amount, you get stung for extra tax if you don’t take out private medical cover. It’s cheaper for my wife and I to pay for it and never use it rather than get stung for extra tax.

I can’t think when (if) we have ever used out private health care, but we’d be out of pocket if we didn’t have it. We pay a monthly fee just to keep our tax bracket lower, and still get full access to the regular free medical system here.

I see the doctor every 6 months for a check up, renew my prescriptions, get flu and Covid jabs, etc etc, been in hospital for a hernia op etc etc, never seen a bill. The public free Medicare system here is pretty good.
Always interesting to see what good healthcare looks like in other countries. I avoid going to the doctors and hospitals because of the high cost. Even with insurance, it gets expensive really quick.
 
My Gf and me pay roughly $6,000 in health and dental a year plus we are taxed roughly $6,000 a year each for health care so $18,000 a year for a house of 2 that is soon going to rise drastically in coming years so canada Is on track to catch you.... don't let anyone tell you canadian Healthcare is free and universal it's a lie unless you are a bum on welfare then I'll flip the bill for yah!
Things must be different there in Saskatchewan, I have yet to pay for a visit to the Dr, dentist or laboratory.

People I know who have had cancer treatments never had any out-of-pocket expenses...

Now when it comes to unemployment insurance, I paid into that for 33 yrs and was never able to claim it....I questioned this to my superiors on several occasions to no avail.
 
I've never received a bill for medical or dental visits here in Ontario Canada including any laboratory visits for blood draws and such.

Emergency visits are not billed either nor are ambulances.
A few weeks ago, my son was having issues with breathing. The doctor had recommended calling EMS and for them to assess if it was critical or if it could wait until he could be seen by the doctor. The EMT's came in an ambulance to the house, took about 15 minutes to make sure he was ok. Received a bill for about $200.
 
A few weeks ago, my son was having issues with breathing. The doctor had recommended calling EMS and for them to assess if it was critical or if it could wait until he could be seen by the doctor. The EMT's came in an ambulance to the house, took about 15 minutes to make sure he was ok. Received a bill for about $200.
Where the heck did that post go that I made?

On a more important note, in the same situation, we wouldn't have received a bill and most likely the paramedics would want to take him to the hospital for a follow up.
 
There are so many directions where healthcare has gone off the rails in the U.S. !

Nothing promised to bring down the cost has helped. 30 years ago they sat us down in groups and showed us charts and graphs about how healthcare was going to bankrupt a company that provided it.

Now it's going to bankrupt our nation.

The ACA, which BTW I support the idea of, was poorly thought out, poorly implemented and poorly managed. And is bankrupting families who now are shouldered with premiums to pay for healthcare access to those with no means.

Which is a growing population.

I work in healthcare transport. Hospitals are facing bankruptcy due to increasing levels of indigent care in their system. It's real, it's not going away and we will all suffer when we have less hospitals to provide access to.

The governments plan to reduce cost is simply pay out less for it. In theory that sounds good. Until you have doctor's having to make up for it in volume. It becomes see the patient less, because you have to see 5 more in that hour.

And their equipment and overhead cost, aren't going down. So that is a vicious cycle of diminishing returns.

I know of noone that I come in contact with in the system who aren't generally on the edge of leaving it.

I personally feel blessed to have my healthcare provided by the VA. It's not perfect. But it's not bad. I've heard horror stories that I won't deny exist. Those same stories exist across the spectrum of healthcare plans. I see everyday people faced with "Well my insurance won't cover it, but I still need it.

But for the care I have gotten, I'd be bankrupt if I had to go out of pocket for it. And sometimes I worry, that they may decide like all the rest, they can't afford to take care of me. And drop my benefit.

I know one thing. To be burdened with something chronic, that you can't help, America and it's healthcare system isn't kind to them.

And you don't want to know the reality of how quickly the system tries to dump those with minimal or no means.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a country, whereby someone can't afford to get sick because of what it cost.
 
I've never received a bill for medical or dental visits here in Ontario Canada including any laboratory visits for blood draws and such.

Emergency visits are not billed either nor are ambulances.
Huh? I'm confused ambulances is never covered neither are most medications or equipment. My benfits cover those, dental has never been free either... without my benfits which is practically medical insurance/dental insurance most of those things are a fortune in canada....

I remember you saying you are Metis, I know in saskatchewan they get better health coverage for free then non-status people.
 
Huh? I'm confused ambulances is never covered neither are most medications or equipment. My benfits cover those, dental has never been free either... without my benfits which is practically medical insurance/dental insurance most of those things are a fortune in canada....

I remember you saying you are Metis, I know in saskatchewan they get better health coverage for free then non-status people.
I get nothing for my Metis status other than a card...

We have no charges for ambulances and I have never paid for any medications.

I do have SISIP and Blue Cross so maybe those make the difference?
 
I am anti doctors, my wife hates me for that as she is a nurse.

I have not seen a doctor or physician, or anything for around 8 years now and I refuse any medication.

My real medical insurance is Medicare, which I do not use, the insurance that really does the job for me is gym, competitive cycling and a healthy diet.

I visit the dentist every 6 months for a clean and check and I get new eye glasses every three years or so, that pretty much sums it up.

So in short, I really don't bother with medical costs as I have none.

At my age, I am way past my best before date, so if the day comes where I have to live of doctors it is time to say goodbye.

The medical business in the US has one priority and that is to make money, the stories I hear from wifey is unbelievable. She works as a nurse for a doctor, part of a big enterprise and they push as many patients through there as they possibly can. They also refer treatments to specialists where the money talks the best.
 
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