A report published this week by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation illustrates how growing health care costs are affecting not just low income people but an alarming number of middle class individuals and families as well. The study covered the period of 2000 through 2008, so you can assume that the numbers are even worse today.
http://covertheuninsured.org/barelyhangingon<snip>
• More middle-class Americans are uninsured.
Nationwide, the total number of uninsured, middle-class people increased by more than 2 million since 2000, to 12.9 million in 2008.
• The average employee's costs for health insurance rose, while income fell.
Nationwide, the average cost an employee paid for a family insurance policy rose 81 percent from 2000 to 2008. During the same period, median household income fell 2.5 percent (adjusted for inflation).
• Fewer people were offered, eligible for, or accepted insurance coverage through their jobs.
As costs of health insurance premiums rose, some employers stopped offering coverage benefits to employees, or changed the criteria for employees' eligibility. While most employers still paid the lion's share of their employees' insurance premiums, rising costs have been passed on to workers -- with some choosing to drop insurance.
Nationwide, the percentage of people who worked for firms that did not offer insurance increased to 12 percent in 2008. The number of workers who were ineligible for ESI -- even though their employer offered it -- was 22 percent in 2008. That means more than one in five people who work in firms that offer health insurance weren't eligible for the benefit. And the percentage of employees nationwide who did not accept ESI increased three percentage points since 2000; 21 percent of employees offered ESI in 2008 did not accept.
"The facts show that everyone is suffering right now, regardless of income," said Lavizzo-Mourey. "For middle-class families, changes in the cost of insurance far outweigh changes in income. That means a bigger piece of the household budget must go to insurance, or families have to go without coverage, delay needed care and face bankruptcy if anyone in the family gets seriously ill. Business owners can't afford to shoulder more of the burden of health care costs. And states can't afford the influx of laid-off workers into public programs. It's a crisis in need of solutions."
A state by state analysis can be found here:
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/58034.pdf
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