Making Health Care More Unaffordable

from OurFuture.org:



Making Health Care More Unaffordable
By Monica Sanchez

October 20th, 2008 - 3:41pm ET



"Financial burdens have increased to the point at which private insurance is no longer able to provide financial protection for an increasing number of families."

That was the staggering conclusion of a recent study published in the health policy journal Health Affairs.

What exactly is the point of having insurance if it does not protect you from financial ruin?

The study found that by 2004, 45.4 million people lived in families with high out-of-pocket health care burdens. Even after general inflation is accounted for, total out-of-pocket spending on health care rose by about 16 percent over the three-year period. In contrast, average family incomes were largely unchanged.

Many — including Sen. John McCain — have pointed to the individual insurance market as a solution to our health care crisis. But all the data shows nongroup insurance forces people to pay even more out-of-pocket for their health care, making it even less affordable.

The Health Affairs study found that "policies purchased in the nongroup market were much more likely than those in any other insurance group to bear high financial burdens during 2001-2004." Moreover, it found the percentage of people with nongroup plans experiencing high out-of-pocket burdens rose dramatically, from 39 percent in 2001 to 52.7 percent in 2004. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104320/making-health-care-more-unaffordable