Posts
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent USD from www.kitco.com]](http://www.weblinks247.com/indexes/idx24_usd_en_2.gif)
Is $13,375 too much for health insurance?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Kaiser Family Foundation provided their annual update on the cost of health insurance and the findings were rather grim, particularly during a time when prices are supposed to be falling. This USA Today report provides the details.
Interestingly, according to this morning's report on consumer prices, the Labor Department puts the year-over-year increase in medical costs at only 3.3 percent.The average cost of a family policy offered by employers was $13,375 this year, up 5% from 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust survey found. By comparison, wages rose 3% over that period, the study said.
...
Since 1999, health insurance premiums for families rose 131%, the report found, far more than the general rate of inflation, which increased 28% over the same period. Overall, health care in the United States is expected to cost $2.6 trillion this year, or 17% of the nation's economy, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
...
As insurance costs increase, workers are also picking up a larger share, the survey found. The average employee with family coverage paid 26% of the premium, the study found, but 41% of companies said they are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to increase the amount employees pay for coverage in the next year.
ooo
6 comments:
3.3% or 5%.....who are these lucky ones?
I know a lot of people who wished that
their policy had only gone up 10% last year. I keep hearing and seeing 18%-28% bar none.....
I am just astonished that americans pay this much in medical insurance - how do you survive? I have never paid this much in total costs for rent previously!!
For at least 5 years of my adult life, I have not even paid this much in tax. I have lived both in Canada, UK and France, and have never experienced anything other than exemplary care, and have never even considered the cost.
Sadly nowadays I pay 45000 in tax, but I am pretty sure that less than a third of that goes to healthcare.
Mid that does cover a family of 4 nowadays too.
Great blog, lurk often but only that $13,375 figure has shocked me enough to comment.
Ours went up by about 25 percent last year, but it didn't go up (yet) this year and I don't know when the previous price hike occurred since we just started paying our own way a couple years ago...
it's pretty cheap considering that a week in the hospital costs ten million dollars
And that's the crux of the problem -- blatant fraud against insurance companies and Medicare. That week on the hospital should be $6,000 tops.
And imagine what a year or two of mild hyperinflation could do to that number. It'll really suck if your employer drops your medical plan and you're forced by the government to pick up the tab yourself.
"It'll really suck if your employer drops your medical plan and you're forced by the government to pick up the tab yourself."
If?
The only way we will avoid a private insurance subsidy mandate plan at this point is if the bankers get jealous and insist that everyone's money must go to them and them alone.
Post a Comment