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tazzygirl -> RE: Obama says 3,000% lower insurance payments are possible (3/18/2010 8:33:52 AM)
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This wasnt a lie... and i warned it would be happening
Workers' share of health care costs
spiked 70% in 10 years, study finds
Fast-rising premiums have forced companies to shift more costs to employees.
While Congress argues over how to extend health insurance to the growing number of people without it, most Maine businesses and workers struggle with a different problem: how to afford the insurance they have.
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The average cost of health coverage through employers' plans in Maine grew nearly 70 percent from 1999 through 2008, according to a study released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Maine's median household income grew only 0.2 percent during the same period.
"It's been a nightmare," said Rick Snow, co-owner of Maine Indoor Karting in Scarborough.
The company's health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2003, he said, even though it dropped prescription drug coverage and increased the amounts that employees pay through co-pays and deductibles.
Family coverage, for example, has increased from $471 a month in 2003 to $809 a month now, and the cost shows no sign of slowing down. "We had a 30 percent increase in July," Snow said.
The foundation's report is adjusted for inflation, which means it shows how much faster insurance premiums have risen than other expenses.
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Maine workers have clearly taken on a larger share, according to the foundation's report. The portion of the premium paid by employees for single coverage more than doubled from 2000 through 2008, even adjusted for inflation, the report said.
Maine employers and their workers have been hit harder than most by the premium increases, the report shows. The average increase nationally was 43 percent to 56 percent depending on type of coverage, compared with 66 percent to 70 percent in Maine, the report shows.
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Jason Allen, a Portland-based independent insurance consultant, said medical costs that rise about 14 percent year after year are the primary driver of the rate hikes. Allen and others also pointed to Maine rules that don't exist in other states, such as one that forbids insurance companies from dropping sick people and a long list of medical procedures that insurers must pay for.
"If you look at the number of mandates (added in Maine) within the last four years, it's much higher than the national rate," Allen said, and each mandate adds an incremental cost.
The premiums charged to employers and workers also reflect a share of the growing cost of care for those without insurance, many of whom are treated in emergency rooms. It is one reason that reform advocates say the nation must address the uninsured problem before it can solve the affordability problem.
Joseph Ditre, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Augusta, said in a written statement Tuesday that the number of uninsured people and the costs paid by those with insurance will continue to rise without congressional action.
"Now more than ever, we must make significant changes to our health care system to decrease costs and ensure that all Americans have quality, affordable care," he said.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/workers-share-of-health-care-costs-spiked-70_-in-10-years-study-finds_2010-03-16.html
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