Economic Policy Institute: A staggering rise in health insurance costs

[Better Believe It]

State of Working America preview: A staggering rise in health insurance costs
December 15, 2010

Family health insurance premiums more than doubled between 1999 and 2009, far outpacing the growth in workers’ earnings and overall inflation. The Figure, from EPI’s forthcoming State of Working America Web site, plots the rise in health insurance premiums against both inflation and hourly earnings for nonsupervisory and production workers, who comprise 80% of the private-sector workforce.

While family health insurance premium costs grew 131% over the past 10 years, inflation over that same period rose just 28.8% and hourly earnings rose by 38.1%. Since health insurance premiums are often shared between workers and their employers, this disproportionate rise in the cost of health insurance helps illustrate why it is increasingly difficult for both employers and their workers to afford.




http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/state_of_working_america_preview_a_staggering_rise_in_health_insurance/

[Donnachaidh]

1. and that *historic reform* just gives the insurance companies a guaranteed profit

Because nowhere in the *reform* is there ANY sort of CONTROL or CAPS on what the insurance companies can charge.

Yeah -- *change we can believe in* :puke:

[indepat]

2. That graph ain't a pretty sight and HCR is a law that will be liked primarily by health insurers

and big pharma. Moreover, real inflation has been much higher than officially acknowledged due to this 131% increase and real wages, adjusted for this 131%, increased much lower than officially recognized. HCR, as written, was basically a Republican bill which fucks over we the people by giving both these industries practically a license to steal, compliments of our business-friendly Congress and administration. :shrug:

[ProSense]

3. Yup,

went up 131 perecent in the decade prior to this Presidency. Health care reform was urgently needed.

[Change has come]

11. Thank God the rates have held steady!

Any blue links that show when it will actually be affordable again? Seems like we have put a floor under this increase.

[jwirr]

4. We told them so. Without the public option there is not competition.

They will not compete with each other for the purpose of lowering the price of insurance.

[area51]

9. +1

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people.

Republinazi '93 plan that includes mandates:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America

[Karmadillo]

5. Obama is going to solve this problem with single-payer! Look! It's true!

Oh. Wait. That was CANDIDATE Obama who told us bad. My bad.

http://www.alternet.org/health/139959

In 2003, Obama said he supports a single-payer health care system, and that the only reason we "may not get there immiediately" is "because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House" - which, of course, we have:

"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program...I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House." - Barack Obama, 2003

[Better Believe It]

6. But later he was an advocate for a public option .... until he turned against it.

[Selatius]

7. Lack of competition between health insurance companies.

The few companies that are around do not want to compete with each other, so they never engage in price wars. It's more profitable not to do such things.

The health care law passed by Congress and signed by Obama does not include any anti-trust provisions at all, and setting up health care markets to bring down costs won't work if there are too few choices.

[WCGreen]

8. This just proves that our whole system for paying for health care is

broken.

there is no "Free" nor "Market" in this system. There is no consumer doctor relationship. It's up to your employer and so it has become a part of your compensation package and does not take into consideration your personal situation.

[slipslidingaway]

10. knr nt

[slipslidingaway]

12. kick nt

[Citizen Worker]

13. Greed knows no bounds. Thank you president O'Bush