Posted on 08/25/2016 8:06:38 PM PDT by Brilliant
Growth in overall health-care spending is slowing, but middle-class families’ share of the tab is getting larger, squeezing households already feeling stretched financially.
Overall, health-care spending across the economy reached 18.2% of gross domestic product as of June, up from 13.3% in 2000, according to Altarum Institute, a health research group.
However, the mix of who pays has evolved. The government has taken on a larger share in recent years as more people age into Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid and provided subsidies for low-income people buying insurance on state exchanges. Middle-class households are finding more of their health-care costs are coming out of their own pockets.
David Cutler, a Harvard health-care economist, said this may be “a story of three Americas.” One group, the rich, can afford health care easily. The poor can access public assistance. But for lower middle- to middle-income Americans, “the income struggles and the health-care struggles together are a really potent issue,” he said.
A June Brookings Institution study found middle-income households now devote the largest share of their spending to health care, 8.9%, a rise of more than three percentage points from 1984 to 2014...
Workers aren’t the only ones feeling the pain of rising health-care costs. Employers still typically pay roughly 80% of individual health-insurance premiums, a share that has held fairly steady in the past five years, thanks in part to changing plan designs that shift more costs to workers, said Beth Umland, director of research on health and benefits at Mercer US Inc.
For many of the 55% of Americans under 65 covered through an employer, plans are getting stingier...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Surprise!
DEMOCRATcare.
Democrats Plan to destroy the American middle class: Right on schedule.
Gee thanks Captain Obvious!
Useless to post paywall articles and searching cache doesn’t work for many of us.
After paying my 0bamacare premiums and deductibles, I’m no longer middle class. What happened to that $2500 I was supposed to be saving?
And the young are roped into paying these costs too. No foregoing unneeded insurance anymore.
You gotta love it when a politician’s biggest support group gets the biggest screwing.
That’s ‘Democracy”.
Yeah - it’s called “Marxism”.
Karl Marx HATED them middle class.
You can NOT use his ideas to help them.
But you middle class Marxists just love your socialism and keep voting for it. :)
I don’t have a friend left that has Obamacare anymore. They simply couldn’t afford it because they kept jacking the premiums up and reducing the benefits. It became to be of no value unless you had a catastrophic health episode...they opted to pay the penalty as did I which I think is BS.
Yup.
Nothing says socialist democrat more than destroying the middle class while demanding thanks from them for doing so.
Obamacare has always been a wealth redistribution scheme and also the biggest tax increase in history coming right after a severe recession.
So, you pay a Tax Penalty because you have a Pulse, lovely.
Welcome to America, your Wallet please. LOL
I don't understand your comment. We ALL have to live with the consequences of the "Affordable Care Act." I don't get a subsidy, but even if I did, I still must buy a government-approved plan, from a crony-caplitalist insurance company, on a State exchange. It has many rules written into it which make it complicated and expensive.
They no longer have healthcare coverage because it was too expensive.
Obammie’s ObamaCare cows are coming home to roost.
I’m now paying $320.00 a WEEK towards my health insurance for my family of four. My employer picks up the rest. It’s insane. I could be investing a large portion of that money.
4 years ago it was $68.00 a week with better co- pays and deductibles.
I know one guy who was paying almost $1,800 a MONTH for his family AFTER Obamacare kicked in and around $400 a month prior. And the government wonders why everyone hates it and pays the penalty. One of my buddies at church manages a medical office. He says they were forced to receive less for the same services under Obamacare and that the profit margins are so low that there is no way they could keep their doors open under their guidelines so they prefer to be paid by the patients themselves. He didn't say it but it sort of sounds like they are keeping two books if you know what I mean. It makes me wonder - - - if the premiums are much higher, the deductibles higher, and the healthcare providers are getting paid less who's keeping the lion's share of the money and what are they doing with it? It's a valid question.
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