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September 14, 2005
Newsflash: Healthcare's Really Expensive
With the disaster on the central Gulf Coast, turmoil in Iraq and the Roberts confirmation hearings, it's easy to forget anything else is going on in America. Aren't we due for a new celebrity trial?
Today's Washington Post runs the results of a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll on the cost of healthcare in America. The picture ain't pretty.
Costs continue to go up steadily (just over 9% this year), as does the number of uninsured, which is now estimated at 47 million. Employer-provided coverage has dropped, down to 60% offering coverage, from 69% five years ago. Fewer than half of firms with under 10 employees now provide healthcare. Those businesses that do provide coverage are increasingly having to pass more cost on to their employees, as premiums skyrocket.
The average cost of insuring a family in America is now just under $11,000 a year. About the only good news is that this year's rate of increase is smaller than the previous couple of years. How comforting.
There is now an increased interest is "consumer driven" coverage, where deductibles are high, and money for routine costs can be accumulated in a fund. The idea is to encourage shopping and decrease unnecessary expenses.
All we know is that the current system isn't working. Costs continue to explode, meaning there are more and more people without coverage who are forced to use indigent care or just go broke and hugely in debt when they get sick.
Politicians bathe in lobbyist money and have done very little to date on this (or any other) issue. Please do something.
Posted by houtopia at September 14, 2005 12:07 PM