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Premiums vs Paychecks

Posted by: Julia Eisman on Sep 22, 2008

With a weakening economy, it's not just food and gas pricesthat are burning holes in our wallets. Health care costs continue to skyrocketand wages aren't keeping pace.  Acrossthe country over the last eight years, wages have remained relatively stagnant andthe cost of health care has steadily increased. While there is variation of this trend from one state to the next, one thing is certain nationally: it's becoming harder for working families to afford health care.

Families USAhas documented the pace by which health insurance premium increases areoutstripping wages in a series of state-by-state reports, Premiumsvs Paychecks. The report documents the increasing burden that families mustbear as a result of rising health care costs.  

The economic downturn coupled with ever-rising health carecosts has had serious consequences for many of us, but unlike the financialsector, working Americans can't expect a government bailout. Instead, more individuals areincurring oppressive medical debt (more than half of bankruptcies are now due,at least in part, to problems with medical costs) and many Americans havejoined the ranks of the underinsured and uninsured.

To make matters worse, the quality of health insurance isn't what it used to be. Workercoverage has grown thinner over the years. As a result, families are payingmore but receiving less in health care coverage:

In addition to higher premiums, working families faced higher out-of-pocket health care costs, such as deductibles, copayments, and costs for services that were not covered by their insurance plans. As a result, health care costs are absorbing an ever-larger portion of family budgets...

Over the next few weeks, we'll be rolling out ourstate-specific reports, and every week, we'll be blogging about differentstates. For now, feel free to check out the material for the first reports we'vereleased: Minnesota,Montana,Ohio,and Wisconsin.