Sunday, July 26, 2015

Cost Of Family Medical Insurance Up Slightly

By Cornelius Nunev


Health insurance is an especially big spending item once one adds a spouse and children and the price is getting a whole lot worse. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered lately that family health insurance premiums are continuing to trend upward.

Additional medical insurance costing more and more

Every person has heard some kind of inane spiel about "family values" eventually. Much of the time it's double-speak for "nullifying women's rights," but in certain cases there's a monetary value involved. One "family value" for a family of four is really, according to Daily Finance, $15,745.

That is enough money to use cash and purchase a new car annually. It is really the price of medical insurance for a family of four with two adults and two kids, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

A 9 percent boost over 2010 was seen in 2011, so the 4 percent boost during the last year was really not that bad.

Low income worker pay more

The annual survey done by Kaiser will show up in the "Health Affairs" journal.

The overall cost increased, but employers pay most of it. The employee-only plan only increased 3 percent to $5,615 with the worker only paying $950. The family plan was $15,745 total, but the worker only contributed $4,316 of that.

That has increased substantially since 2002, according to CNN, when the average family insurance premium was $8,003. In that year, average employer contribution was $5,866 and the average employee contribution was $2,137. However, adjusted for inflation, $8,003 works out to $10,192, so the cost has increased in real and nominal terms.

Workers at businesses where at least 35 percent of employees make less than $24,000 per year pay $1,000 more in insurance premiums than businesses where at least 35 percent of workers make at least $55,000 a year. That means it is more expensive to get health care for lower-wage workers, according to CNN.

Insurance deductibles also increasing

According to the New York Times, in 2007, 21 percent of healthcare plans had deductibles of $1,000 or more. This has even increased since half of all plans have the high deductible now.

According to the Washington Post, part of the issue with family medical insurance plans is that wages are not keeping pace. Since 1999, medical insurance premiums have risen 172 percent and employee contributions have risen 180 percent. Wages have risen only 47 percent in that time, just above the 38 percent rise in central price inflation since that year.




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