Guess what? Worker health coverage is going up
May 27, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Health care, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Money
A new report shows what the average family is paying for health coverage these days.
The cost to insure the average family in the U.S. last year was $16,771 when coverage was obtained through an employer, according to a report by benefits consulting firm Milliman, Inc. And worker contributions to that coverage have been going up.
Some of the key numbers from the report:
- About 170 million Americans get their health insurance through an employer.
- Healthcare costs, via premium payments and out-of-pocket medical expenses, now eat up 14% of the average household income of about $50,000.
- Costs went up an average of $1,162 per family this year from the average of $15,609 last year.
- Employers’ contribution to workers’ monthly premiums increased by 5.4% over the past year, but employees’ contributions went up 14.7%.
- Employers paid an average contribution of $9,947 per worker. Employees paid an average of $4,004 in premiums and an additional $2,820 in out-of-pocket expenses.
A glimmer of good news: The report showed that costs are rising but not quite as rapidly as they had in prior years.
Click here to see the full report.
Tags: health coverage, healthcare, Milliman
June 1st, 2009 at 3:37 pm
“A glimmer of good news: The report showed that costs are rising but not quite as rapidly as they had in prior years.”
Who says we need Universal Health Care? As long as the costs rise but not quite as rapidly as previous years.
Hope you realize I’m being sarcastic.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 am
Oh Scott…universal healthcare is just another way of increasing taxes and putting the government in control of more of our decisions. I don’t want to wait for months to see any Doctor because mine left. It does stink that the rates are going higher. I agree, something needs to be done, but to give control of our healthcare to the government is not the right answer. They have enough trouble allocating the taxes they already get. They are in charge of our schools, but here in Nevada, our drop out rate is higher than our graduation rate. I am very fearful of putting my granddaughter in public school…I want her to learn and graduate. The public school system can’t even offer that.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
In 1996 our company paid $117.59 per month for single coverage and $358.64 for family coverage for our employees. That was with a $250.00 deductible and 80/20 to $5,000.00 after which it was 100%. No concerns about networks or contracted Doctors, we could go to any Doctor we wanted.
In 2009 our company pays $332.91 per month for single coverage and $1,065.32 for family coverage. That is with a $3,000.00 deductible, $6,000.00 if the provider is out of network with a 60/40 split for non-contracted providers. The company contributes $1500.00 per year to our HSA to help out on the increased deductible. (The HSA has proven very valuable on many levels but that is another topic for another time.)
In 2002, when Clinton was running for office and talking about health care reform, we had the highest ever annual increase of 25.67%. When he got elected we had the only decrease we had ever seen, it was 27.63% less, (yes, LESS), than the year before. The next year, when the Clinton administration was still trying for reform we had less than a 1% increase. The next 2 years, after health care was no longer on the legislative table, our premiums went up 17% and 16% respectively and would have been higher had we not greatly increased our deductible to try to keep costs down.
We are considering dropping our company sponsored plan all together because those of us who are healthy are being penalized for those that are not (sometimes through no fault of their own.)
Senators, prisoners, the elderly/retired, and unmarried/low income/single parents have the lowest cost (or free) health care.
Quit arguing about what won’t work and start coming up with some solutions that will work, OR, start the rhetoric about how best to “thin the herd” because that will be the only solution.