And then there was California where some insurance company (was it BC/BS ???) raised rates by 39% last year before the health care law could go into effect? And another state where an insurance company raised their rates by 24% last year?Health Insurance Premiums Up by Half Since 2003
By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: November 22, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The average premium for a family's employer-based health insurance in 2010 was nearly $14,000, which represents a 50% increase since 2003, according to a study from the Commonwealth Fund.
If the rate of growth continues, the average annual total premium for a family in 2020 could be nearly $24,000, according to the report. That total includes both what the employer and the employee pay.
In the Commonwealth Fund's state-by-state survey -- which analyzed private health insurance trends for those younger than 65 culled from the federal government's annual survey of employers -- the average total premium in 2010 was $13,871 a year for family coverage.
In 16 states, the premium was even higher, and in Florida, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia, the average premium was more than $15,000 a year. Meanwhile, Idaho, Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, and Alabama had the lowest average annual premiums, ranging from $11,379 to $12,409.
Employers pay the bulk of the annual premium, about 73% to 79%. In 2010, the average annual cost of insurance coverage paid by the employee for a family plan was $3,721, which is 63% more than the employee paid in 2003.
Although employers are bearing the brunt of the cost of providing health insurance, the rising cost might keep employee salaries lower or cut into other benefits, the report authors said.
"In effect, the steady increase in premiums has been consuming resources that employers might otherwise have earmarked for salary or wage increases, for other benefits, or for hiring new workers," wrote the authors of the report, who were led by Cathy Schoen, senior vice president at Commonwealth Fund.
In every state, insurance premiums have increased faster than salaries. In 2003, there was only one state where the average annual premium equaled 20% or more of median household income for the under-65 population; by 2010 there were 23. More than 6 in 10 people in the U.S. live in a state where insurance premiums are 20% or more of median incomes.
The Commonwealth Fund survey examined premiums before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which contains a number of insurance provisions and sets in place a process whereby states or the federal government can review insurers' proposed premium increases before they take effect.
If the delivery system reforms and potential cost-savers in the ACA succeed and slow the rate of growth in premiums by just 1 percentage point, families and employers would save more than $2,000 on annual premiums by 2020, the report found.
A September report from the Kaiser Family Foundation came to similar conclusions, finding that the premiums have increased another 9% since 2010. The average total premium for employer-sponsored health insurance is $15,073 for a family in 2011, according to that report.
The "middle class" income since the 2010 census has been pegged at $20,000 to $100,000 a year. That's a hail of a range for middle class income!!! I sure as the devil am NOT in the upper middle income bracket, but thank God I'm a decent way away from the lower middle income bracket as well!!!
