Health Care Costs Increase Strain, Studies Find
Even as Washington and Wall Street debate the best way to avert an economic disaster, increasing numbers of Americans are struggling with another financial crisis: the growing burden of unpaid medical bills.
Two studies released Wednesday provide further evidence of the toll that health care is increasingly placing on working families, even for those with health insurance. And as employees are paying more medical expenses out of their own pockets, they are having a harder time coming up with the money.
“The problems people are having paying for health care and health insurance are a central dimension of the economic and pocketbook concerns right now,” said Drew E. Altman, the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health research group that conducts an annual survey of employer medical benefits.
The studies, policy analysts say, underscore the need for the government to address the growing unaffordability of care, despite the distraction — and cost to taxpayers — of a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial sector.
“We can now imagine a government takeover that we could not imagine before,” Mr. Nichols said.
Although inflation in insurance premiums has moderated in recent years, the Kaiser survey found that employees were continuing to spend more in medical costs, including their share of yearly insurance premiums. Employees are paying an average of $3,354 in premiums for family coverage, more than double the amount they paid in 1999. The total cost for family coverage now averages $12,680 a year, up 5 percent from 2007.
Oh damn, Oh snap, blame Obama, blame the ACA, oh gosh, look at the date.
Published: September 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And guess what, there was an article just like that one written in 07, and 06 and 05 you get the idea.
1st: go to this link and read what the missing puzzle piece is for the ACA.
California Healthline : There's one general perception that regulating rates is somehow a moot point because the exchange will offer more reasonable rates, which means we won't need regulation of rate hikes. But you don't see those lower rates happening without that regulatory power?
Jones: I'm a big believer in math, and I avoid magical thinking. I'm very concerned there's a lot of magical thinking going on. Look at the evidence. Look at what happened in Massachusetts. It's very clear the Affordable Care Act, in and of itself, is not going to magically reduce rates.
http://www.californiahealthline.org/...
Health care costs went up before the ACA.
They will go up after the ACA.
Even if the ACA didn't exist, that's right, prices were going to go up.
Are people going to blame the ACA every single time costs go up? Guess what, insurance is a for profit industry, health care is a for profit industry- ergo, prices are always going to go up.
Will the ACA be the scapegoat forever more?
There is one thing to keep in mind; The Single Largest Federal tax Subsidy a for profit corporation can take is- Employer Sponsored Health Insurance.
Profitable businesses that drop coverage, will find that they will be missing out on of the largest deductions in existence. Take a deduction here, and a credit there- and low and behold, taxes magically go away. Kind of like nose cutting in spite of face.
Another fact, some people will wind up paying more, some will gain better coverage, some will pay more for less. Eventually though, everyone will save because pre existing conditions no longer factor into premiums and will no longer lead to outright insurance bans.
The lies and the misinformation can wear you down. The worst type of misinformation trolls are the ones that drop that the ACA caused their costs to go up. Might as well tell me how many angels fit on the head of a pin. Compare your old plan to an ACA plan, Apples to apples, premiums, deductibles, caps etc etc. What were they before, what are they now. How many times have your insurance costs rise in the past? How large were those increases compared to your latest increase?
It's so easy to blame the ACA, but the fact of the matter is, insurance costs were going to go up, just like the costs of gas, food, milk, tuition, rent, and childcare.