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 with many effort to make as much money as they could before the law’s provisions kick in. Individuals that are facing sharp increases in their insurance premiums are also trying to conserve money by settling for fewer benefits and higher deductibles. Meanwhile, steadily rising insurance premiums, the a drop within the number of employers offering health coverage, and the recession swelled the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 3 million people in 2009.
Health insurance and cost trends
. As outlined by 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 somewhere around 13 percent. This year’s individual health insurance premium spike completely tops last year’s 5 percent average increase for employer-sponsored family coverage. Health insurance cost trends for employer-sponsored single coverage held steady.
Pricey medical insurance for individuals
The rising cost of health insurance for people made news earlier this year when Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise its rates by as much as 39 percent in California. According to the New York Times, the Kaiser study sheds light on how widespread these premium hikes are. 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. The Kaiser foundation’s president and chief executive, Drew Altman, told the Times that “The survey shows that the steep increases we have been reading about over the last various months are not just extreme cases.”
A long wait to health care reform
The Kaiser survey highlights the challenges that about 14 million people who are younger than 65 and purchase their coverage within the individual market will face until changes under the health care reform law kick in 2014. All Americans can be required to have health insurance by then. Within the meantime, 52 percent of respondents in the Kaiser survey who already purchase their own individual health coverage said they would keep their current plan next year, when 32 percent said they weren’t sure. 14 percent said that they would probably switch companies to cut costs.
High deductibles on health insurance plans
Individuals are switching plans to higher deductibles to conserve money. The average deductible is $ 2,500. One out of each and every four individuals surveyed said there was an annual deductible of $ 5,000 or more. The number of those with high deductibles has risen from 39 percent in 2007 to almost 47 percent in 2009.
Millions sacrificing health insurance protection
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. According to 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 climbed 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
