Health insurance premiums for individuals who purchase coverage by themselves are soaring, according to a study released Monday. When lawmakers debated the health care reform bill, health insurance companies were trying hard to make as much money as they could before the law’s provisions kick in. Individuals facing sharp increases in their insurance premiums are trying with all of their might to conserve money by settling for fewer benefits and higher deductibles. In the mean time, steadily increasing insurance premiums, the a drop within the number of employers offering health coverage, and also the recession swelled the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 3 million people in 2009.
Health insurance expense trends
Premium hikes for health insurance for individuals far exceed increases in the premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, as outlined by a new survey on health insurance cost trends from the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to the Associated Press, the non-profit foundation said premium hikes for individual coverage averaged 20 percent. Customers who were able to switch to cheaper plans brought the average increase in what individuals are paying for health insurance down to 13 percent. This year’s individual health insurance premium spike totally tops last year’s 5 percent average increase for employer-sponsored family coverage. Health insurance cost trends for some of the employer-sponsored single coverage held steady.
Health insurance for individuals is costly
The rising cost of health insurance for individuals made news earlier this year when Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise its rates by 39 percent in California. It was reported by the New York Times the Kaiser study sheds light on how widespread these premium hikes are. It was reported by the New York Times reports that when the proposed Anthem hikes were met with outrage from federal and state officials, there was little info about how widespread such increases were in other parts of the country. Drew Altman, who was the Kaiser foundation’s president and chief executive, told the Times that “The survey shows that the steep increases we are reading about over the last several months aren’t just extreme cases.”
A long wait to health care reform
The Kaiser survey highlights the challenges that about 14 million people younger than 65 who purchase their coverage in the individual market will face until changes under the health care reform law kick in 2014. By then, all of the Americans can have to have health insurance. In the meantime, 52 percent of respondents within the Kaiser survey who already purchase their own individual health coverage said they would keep their current plan next year, while 32 percent said they were not sure. Another 14 percent said they would switch companies in hopes to cut costs.
High deductibles on health insurance plans
People are switching plans to higher deductibles to save money. The survey reported the average deductible for individual plans is about $ 2,500. There is an annual deductible of $ 5,000 or a lot more. The number of those with high deductibles has risen from 39 percent in 2007 to almost 47 percent in 2009.
Millions of individuals losing health coverage
For the 2.9 million U.S. adults who joined the ranks of the uninsured in 2009, health care reform does little to help them with their current needs. As outlined by USA Today, in 2009 — the latest statistics available — 46.3 million American adults had no health insurance coverage, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in five working adults don’t have insurance. The percentage of uninsured adults of working age went way up from 19.7 percent to 21.1 percent in 2009, and 58.5 percent of American adults went without insurance for at least part of the year.
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Associated Press
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5je_4AEzpzQnfbTmeeOg1yUO9jWRgD9GFOU080
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22kaiser.html?src=busln
USA Today
usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-20-uninsured-reform_N.htm
