Posted on 04/10/2012 9:40:22 AM PDT by tobyhill
Three days of Supreme Court arguments have left the fate of the 2010 health care reform law uncertain. What is certain, however, is that health care costs are continuing to eat away at consumers' budgets.
The cost to cover the typical family of four under an employer plan is expected to top $20,000 on health care this year, up more than 7% from last year, according to early projections by independent actuarial and health care consulting firm Milliman Inc. In 2002, the cost was just $9,235, the firm said.
The projected increase marks the fifth year in a row that health care costs will rise between 7% and 8% annually.
While employers still shoulder a majority of health care expenses, employees have been paying a larger portion of the total amount every year, according to Lorraine Mayne, principal and consulting actuary with Milliman.
Rising costs for employees is part of a long-term trend, said Deborah Chollet, senior fellow and health economist with Washington-based Mathematica Policy Research. "Employers have been unwilling to have their benefits costs rise at the rate that health care costs have risen," she said.
As a result, they have been passing along extra costs to employees in the form of higher deductibles and co-pays, as well as more expensive premiums.
Last year, workers' out-of-pocket costs rose 9.2% to $3,280 for a typical family of four, according to Milliman.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Lame attempt at CNN spin. “See how much better off you’d all be if you just let the government pick-up the cost of your health care?” They truly do think we’re stupid.
My family plan costs $3500. I work at a $14 billion company. Where do they get this ridicuous number of $20,000?
Not to defend CNN, but is your $3500 cost your portion or the total plan cost?
Your company is picking up most of the cost.
The comments are better than the article. Socialism stinks, but the socialists and communists have pushed the argument into the public square.
You are heavily subsidized by your employer.
It is getting ridiculous. I pay $760 a month and have a $5000 deductible per family member. But I still don’t like zero care.
My company went to a high deductible plan. It has no premiums and I need to pay the full price for a visit up to $2400 for a family. Then they pay 80% up to $7200. After that they pay 100%. In the 3 years I have been on it I have spent less than $400 and that includes meds.
I did the math and I needed to visit the doctor about 60 times a year just to break even with the premiums currently being charged for a PPO plan. That’s not counting the co-pays I would have to pay.
Either your costs have gone up, or your coverage has gotten crappier; there just aren’t any two ways about it. The slack is getting taken up somewhere in the food chain.
Three years ago I had 100% in-network coverage with nominal co-pays for my entire family; total costs to myself and my company were $13K, of which I paid 25%.
[This was with a company who’s current advertising now includes some BS line about “union-level wages”; which speaks VOLUMES about where my premiums were going. The bastards.]
Last year I had 80% in-network coverage, my company paid 100% of the first $3K of out-of-pocket, I paid 100% of the next $3K, with a family OOP max of $6,000, and similar co-pays as before, all at a combined company/employee annual cost of — [fanfare] — about $13K, of which I paid 30%.
Now, the company has switched providers, I’m on COBRA with 75% in-network coverage, and the current family plan has an annualized cost of $13K, of which I will pay 100%.
Costs to end-users are UP; WAY up. If you’re not feeling it directly, thank your corporate CFO and HR Director.
Just me and Hubby...$7000 a year. We do not have a company picking up part of the tab.
At my most recent job, my health care costs (premiums plus deductibles, not including co-pays) were almost $20,000 per year for a family of three.
Eventually that will start to go away. The employers will start to realize thay cannot keep paying more and more each year, so it will be up to the employeees to pick up the slack.
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