This year, health insurance went up by 7.7%, which is twice the rate of inflation. Since 2000, premiums have gone up by 78%, while salaries have only gone up by 20%. When you compare the two, you start to see the real picture.
This year, the average premium for a single person is just over $4000, and the average premium for an American family is almost $11,500. 61 percent of companies now offer health care benefits. This is down from 69 percent in 2000. It is thought that more than 155 million Americans will get health care through their jobs. Many companies now offer benefit packages with higher deductibles to lower the overall cost of their insurance plans. It's important to note that this report comes after the Census found that 1.3 million more Americans lost their health insurance in 2005. What stands out here is the long-term trend of coverage given by small businesses to their employees going down.
Dr. Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation, said, "To working people and business owners, a reduction in an already very high rate of increase just means you're still paying more."
Recently, insurance companies have come under fire for dropping families with high medical bills. In California, the state is looking into a claim that Blue Cross dropped a family's coverage when their medical bills reached $20,000. Over $60,000 in unpaid medical bills have been left to the family. The company says that the family didn't tell them about a lump on one of the children's chins that hadn't been diagnosed when they applied for coverage. The family says that neither they nor their doctor knew about the tumour when they filled out the application.
These kinds of cancellations of coverage have led to a huge backlash against insurance companies and a number of lawsuits that are still going on. The policyholders say that their policies were illegally cancelled, which caused them a lot of money problems. State officials are looking into the situation and say they are getting ready to take action against Blue Cross.
We, the public, need to be protected from these (insurance) companies in some way. When these medical bills come at a time when a family needs help the most, it's a crime that they have to pay for them. Since they've been taking our money every month for years, they shouldn't be able to cancel our coverage. They should be forced by law to keep the deal they wrote and we both signed.
