Health care costs have been rising for years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2 trillion in 2006, almost three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. Stemming this growth has become a major policy priority, as employers and consumers increasingly struggle to keep up with health care costs.
Below are some statistics about the high price of basic health care:
1. In 2006, U.S. health care spending was about $7,026 per resident and accounted for 16% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Total health care expenditures grew at an annual rate of 6.7 percent in 2006, outpacing inflation and the growth in national income. In almost every employer survey, the rising cost of providing health care to employees is the top concern. Facing pressure to increase or just maintain profit margins, employers feel increasingly stressed to provide quality employee health care at an affordable cost.
Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 6.1 percent in 2007. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,100. The annual
premium for single coverage averaged over $4,400.
2. Health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits by 2008.
3. In 2005, employer health insurance premiums increased by 9.2% – nearly three times the rate of inflation.
4. Since 2000, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 100 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 24 percent and cumulative wage growth of 21 percent during the same period.
5. Workers are now paying $1,400 more in premiums annually for family coverage than they did in 2000.
6. In a Wall Street Journal-NBC Survey almost 50 percent of the American public cite the cost of health care as the number one economic concern. Continue reading Key Facts about the Cost of Health Care in the US
Tag Archives: insurance
Health Care Statistics in the United States
Health Insurance
- The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system. Source: Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
- In 2010, the percentage of Americans without health insurance was 16.3%, or 49.9 million uninsured people. Source: US Census Bureau
- Of the 83.7% of people with health insurance in 2010, coverage was 55.3% employment-based, 9.8% direct-purchase, and 31.0% government funded (Medicare, Medicaid, Military). (Overlap reflects coverage by more than one type of health insurance). Source: US Census Bureau
- The primary reason given for lack of health insurance coverage in 2005 was cost (more than 50%), lost job or a change in employment (24%), Medicaid benefits stopped (10%), ineligibility for family insurance coverage due to age or leaving school (8%). Source: National Center for Health Statistics
- More than 40 million adults stated that they needed but did not receive one or more of these health services (medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses) in 2005 because they could not afford it. Source: National Center for Health Statistics Continue reading Health Care Statistics in the United States
Caring for Your Health and Your Wallet in 2010
Here we are at the end of another year. If you’re among those who make New Year’s resolutions related to your health, here’s an incentive to stick with your 2012 plans: Poor health habits are costing you money.
I’ve written before about how more employers today are offering financial incentives, such as lower insurance premiums and cash or gift cards, if you participate in activities like filling out a health risk assessment or agree to take a smoking cessation class.
The stakes are even higher for people who don’t get insurance through their jobs and buy coverage on their own in the private insurance market. After evaluating well over 200,000 average individual health insurance premiums, eHealthInsurance.com, the largest online insurance broker, found that a number of health habits significantly drive insurance prices skyward.
Smoking – Perhaps not surprisingly, if you smoke you can expect your insurance coverage to cost more money. How much more? According to eHealthInsurance.com data based on nearly 275,000 individual major medical policies, women smokers pay 23% more on average for their monthly health insurance premiums than non-smoking women. Men who smoke pay 13% more on average than men who don’t light up.
Being Overweight – Dropping those extra pounds in the New Year will do more than help you fit into your skinny jeans; there’s money to be saved as well. People with a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 tend to pay less for health insurance than people who are overweight.
In fact, the online broker’s analysis of 230,000 individual insurance policies revealed that obese adults pay an average of almost 23% more in monthly insurance premiums compared to people with a BMI in the normal range. When broken down by gender, the survey found that women paid nearly 31% more and men paid just shy of 23% more than people of healthy weight (starting to notice a gender bias trend here?).
Drink Less – Alcohol is a mixed bag; some studies have indicated that moderate drinking can be healthful, while others suggest regular alcohol intake can increase the risk of disease, including various cancers. Insurers know this, which is why when you apply for coverage on the private market, you may be asked about your drinking habits, for example, how much alcohol you drink and how often. Your monthly premiums could be increased depending upon your answers (which is not an inducement to lie about your alcohol intake, but to start cutting back if it’s excessive).
What health habits are you hoping to change or improve upon in 2012? Share your resolutions and your plans to stick with them in the comments below.
8 Keys to Picking the Best Individual Health Insurance Policy
Choosing the right individual health insurance plan just got a lot easier with the help of U.S. News’s Best Health Insurance Plans. Our user-friendly plan finder lets you zero in on a plan with the coverage you need at a price you can afford. To make a good choice and avoid some common traps, however, you need to keep a few basics in mind, starting with the meaning of such terms as premium, deductible, copay, and coinsurance. Then go through the checklist provided here, with your likely medical needs and how much you can pay a month as the backdrop. With the right insurance, you could save thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, if you or a family member gets sick.
1. Identify the “must-haves.” You can’t foresee a sudden injury or illness, but some medical needs can be anticipated. Maternity coverage, for example, is an obvious must-have if you’re starting a family, and not all policies offer it. If you have a family history of heart disease, you may want to make sure your coverage includes the cost of cardiac screening tests and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Under the Affordable Care Act, individual insurance plans must cover the full cost of more than two dozen preventive services for men, women, and children, including vaccinations and tests for high blood pressure, cholesterol, colon cancer, and diabetes, as long as they’re provided by a practitioner in the plan’s network. Continue reading 8 Keys to Picking the Best Individual Health Insurance Policy
Group Health Insurance Quotes
Group health insurance is purchased by employers to provide health care benefits for themselves and their employees. The insurance contract is between the employer and the insurance company and the employer is responsible for paying the monthly premium to the insurance company. An employer may require a partial contribution of premium payment from the employees, which will be deducted from the payroll of each employee that chooses to enroll in the group health insurance plan. Group health care insurance is usually the best option available to persons that have the fortune of being employed by a company that offers this benefit to their employees.
Who Should Consider Group Health Care Insurance
From the perspective of a business owner, offering group health insurance to your employees is a great way to maintain company loyalty and keep your workforce healthy. In some states employers with a minimum number of employees are required by law to offer employee health benefits. More and more states are considering similar laws in order to reduce the number of uninsured residents in their state. Small employers with just a few employees can also qualify for group health insurance. Continue reading Group Health Insurance Quotes
How To Take Care Of Your Health
Our health is the most important factor that we need to give much attention to. When we get sick, everything around us is affected; our work, family, social life, and etc. That is why to stay healthy is very important so you can do anything that you want without any hassle. But most people say that taking care of your health could be expensive because you need to invest from it. Most people just get concerned of their health if they get sick but if they are healthy they don’t even care. But wouldn’t it be better if we maintain the good health that we have by preventing any sickness to develop? This may not be easy but it is possible. Try to think of the money you can save if you do not get sick for a year? That is a lot of money if you think of it and you can invest that to more important things that can help you achieve your other goals. Now to help you fight sickness to develop, here are some of the things that you need to do.
Get Health Insurance
The very first thing that you need to secure if you can afford it is to get a personal health insurance. It’s either you get it privately or from the company that you work for, it doesn’t matter as long as you have health insurance. Your health insurance will not only save your life from sickness but also your pocket from possible expenses. If you have health insurance you don’t have to worry from medical and hospital bills because everything will be taken care of the insurance company.
Eat Healthy Food
Another way to protect you from getting sick is to eat healthy food, food that is rich in vitamins and nutrients. I’m actually referring to fruits and vegetables and other suggested healthy recipes. Avoid food that can cause you to develop serious illnesses like high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and many more, foods like fatty food, sweets, foods that are high in calories and carbohydrates. Try to make your own diet plan, a plan that you are comfortable with. As long as you have control with your calorie intake you will not have any problem with any sickness to develop. Continue reading How To Take Care Of Your Health
What do you think about health care from a morality perspective?
Ask:
I’m not referring to any individual health care bill or idea for reform. I’m talking only about the concept of health care itself.
Do you believe a society that considers itself advanced has any moral obligations to care for the sick?
Do you believe everyone should fend for themselves? If so, are you comfortable with the fact that while that means some abusers of the system (whatever that may be) will die, so too will some who are innocent?
Answers:
Answer 1:
This is the very thing that differentiates a society from lone hunter-gatherers. The final evolutionary step that separated us from other animals was the development of agriculture. Before, it was “every primate for himself.” People hunted and gathered food for themselves and their families. Those who couldn’t, died. That’s the fundamental rule of the animal kingdom.
But the development of agriculture brought about an entirely new concept. Instead of simply feeding your family, people worked the land and shared it with the community, even those who were too weak to fend for themselves. Rather than dying, these individuals with weaker physical bodies who developed relying on their minds started developing literature, science, art, and invention.
Our society would not be where it is today if we reverted back to the primitive Darwinian mindset that many on the right (who, ironically enough, generally tend to despise Darwin’s theories) espouse. You are able to make money because you live in a SOCIETY that is stable (more or less). You don’t have to worry about roaming gangs storming into your office and stealing all your possessions. You can call the police, asocial service. If your building catches fire, you can call the fire department, a social service. Your kids go to school so they can carry on the family’s success and so you can go to work every day rather than staying home to teach them.
That said, health care is the one exception in this country. Unlike every other social service, which is paid by taxes, health care is being rationed and partitioned for the most fortunate. The less fortunate, who wash the dishes and drive the cabs and put out the fires, they’re being denied access to what the rest of the civilized world regards as a basic human right.
If you don’t want to sacrifice a little to help the society, even if it brings no direct benefit to yourself, then you can always leave the society and see how successful you are without the rest of us. You can build a log cabin in Montana, hunt and gather your own food, and have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re not looking out for anyone but yourself.
We can have a valid debate over *how* universal health care should be implemented and *who* should be running it. But the question of whether or not we have both an evolutionary and a moral imperative to provide health care to all our citizens has already been settled by the rest of the modern world. If you don’t want to catch-up to them along with the rest of us, you can always go back to living in the forest.
Answer 2:
I believe everyone should “fend for themselves” to the very best of their ability. However, is many cases, this simply isn’t enough. I wrote recently, for example, about being refused service because I could not afford to pay the entire bridge amount owed to a ob/gyn. I have excellent insurance which costs $250 per month. The doctor has been paid very well up to this point by the insurance company. I have/had a bridge to meet and they absolutely refused to work with me; rather, they demanded payment in full, and for some “if it happens services”, which the insurance wouldn’t buy in a second. When I could not pay, my daughter was refused service and she is 33 weeks pregnant! Also, for 25+ years I have NEVER used ANY type of government assistance. Recently, my daughter did sign up for State Healthcare and this doctor too would not accept this insurance. Seems to me it’s all about the money in the docs pockets and not a bit about the genuine need for care by the people. I’ve noticed too over the years that more and more prescriptions are given and I have a funny feeling their pockets (the docs) are lined by the pharmaceutical companies. We’re used as guinea pigs. Who, after all, is most upset by the potential change?
I do believe we need overhaul and this should include everyone (there are abusers of everything; this is life). Most people are honest and don’t abuse.
How to Get Health Care While Uninsured
A couple of years ago, I had a cold for about four months. I thought I had somehow caught five colds in a row, which I thought was no big deal, because they were just colds after all.
But then I started dropping a lot of weight while eating a lot of chocolate cake. My hair started falling out, and I had the shakes so bad that my handwriting—which I used to be proud of—became illegible. My short-term memory stopped working. It was difficult to have a conversation, because by the time I neared the end of a sentence, I had already forgotten what I was talking about.
Things were bad, but I had no health insurance, which I thought meant that the only thing to do was try to ignore it, and hope that whatever was wrong with me would go away on its own. Each new symptom added another few hundred dollars to the imaginary doctor’s bill in my head, which meant that as things got worse, I had more incentive to pretend that I had some sort of temporary bug that would eventually go away.
Then one day, I got up to go to work— at the time, I had a part-time job copyediting product labels and PowerPoint presentations—but I couldn’t make it out the door. About halfway through my morning shower, I started panting, and my heart was beating out of my chest. It was as if I had just run a mile, when I had actually just walked 20 feet from my bed to the bathroom. There had been signs before this incident: The day before, I found myself so nauseous and out of breath during my four-block walk to work, that I turned around and went straight back home.
It took near-complete incapacitation for me to bite the bullet and go to the doctor. It turned out that I have Graves disease, a congenital, autoimmune hyperthyroid condition that I’ll have for the rest of my life. Missy Elliot, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush also have it. Graves disease affects every cell in your body, so it gets bad if it goes untreated. But it’s very manageable as long as I take my pills, see my endocrinologist and get a blood test every six weeks.
As a freelancer, I still don’t have health insurance. But at this point, I’ve gone to a bunch of doctors, and have learned some things along the way about getting health care without health insurance. The more I know about the health care system, the less I do stupid things like get so sick I can’t function anymore.
1. Doctors aren’t just for the insured.
If you don’t have health insurance, the immediate reaction is not to go, and to chew on a couple of echinacea pills and hope for the best. I thought of health insurance as some kind of entry card to the entire health care system, but it doesn’t work that way. Plain old cash can get you through the door too. A trip to a doctor costs around $150–$200, or about the price of a nice dinner.
If you’re too broke to go for nice dinners, then look for community health clinics, like Ryan-NENA in New York City, which has a sliding scale for people without health insurance. I used to go there for routine check-ups when I was a student, and they were very nice. I don’t remember getting a bill for more than $5. If you’re skirting the poverty line, which is an annual income of $10,890 for a single person, then you might qualify for Medicaid, and you should definitely apply.
The other thing to keep in mind is that unless it’s a true emergency (severed limbs, heart attacks), don’t go to the emergency room. Go to an urgent care clinic for things like broken bones, pink eye, and other non-life threatening illnesses, or a private walk-in clinic. They’re more pleasant, faster, and much, much cheaper. Call ahead to ask how much, but they usually fall in the $150–$200 range to see a doctor. I went to one in San Francisco, and they were the ones who ended up diagnosing my illness. Last time I had a tear in my cornea, I went to this place in Manhattan.
Sometimes specialists don’t cost much more than a generalist, depending on what you need. The endocrinologist I go to in New York charged $300 for the initial consultation, then $175 for each visit afterwards. While general practitioners are accessible and great, it’s nice to have a specialist who knows a lot about my disease. If you’ve had insurance before, you may have heard that you need a “referral” before going to a specialist. That’s insurance provider bureaucracy, and you don’t need one if you don’t have a health insurance company to answer to. Continue reading How to Get Health Care While Uninsured
What’s the Best Way To Find Health Insurance?
In October of 2009, I decided that I would no longer run the 9-5 gauntlet. And with that decision came a few immediate changes in my life. Working from home and for myself meant that I could set my own schedule, make my own decisions and only have myself to blame when something I’ve implemented did not work out. For me, the upside to this decision was infinite because I was slowly getting beaten down by “the man” and couldn’t take it anymore. Unfortunately though, there were downsides to my decision, two of which I’m dealing with right now.
The first of these downers is the amount of taxes I now pay as an independent contractor. Unknown to me at the time was that I would owe a self-employment tax that my previous employer use to pick up. Half of my social security and Medicare taxes were paid for when I had that office job, but now I foot 100% of the bill. The second and more important change was that I no longer had health or dental insurance from my employer. Truth be told, five months since my decision you still won’t find me visiting any hospitals or dentists because I still don’t carry any medical or dental insurance. I’m relatively healthy and now that I never leave the house, I have only my apartment to fear for an accident. But I’ve tempted fate long enough and now it’s time to find my own health insurance plan.
Like any important decision, this one is going to take a little time and a lot of research before I decide on the plan that’s right for me. Before spending thousands of dollars a year, I’m going to educate myself as best I can on the coverage that suits my needs, and that means going through the following step-by-step process.
1. Why I NEED Health Insurance
Something I learned at the age of five when biting through an electrical cord is that I’m not invincible. Even though I keep myself in relatively good health with exercise and home cooked meals, routine check-ups and emergency care are necessary to keep myself that way. Should the time come when I am unfortunate enough to need expensive medication or a medical procedure, I want to make sure that I “can afford” to stay alive.
My finances are certainly not where I want them to be, but without health insurance, I am taking a huge risk in saving a few bucks now for a potential catastrophe later. All of my current payments and bills will now take a backseat to making sure I’m alive long enough to pay them. The cost of surgery without insurance would derail all of the progress I have made over the last few years.
2. Understanding the Medical Mumbo Jumbo
When you carry health insurance through your employer, you are usually limited to the types of coverages available to you. Because you only have to pay a fraction of what you would had you worked on your own, the downside to having limited options is outweighed by the money you save over time. For me, I have the entire health care system available (99% of the health care system would be more accurate), and I want to review the most common plans taken out by consumers today.
- PPO: PPO stands for “Preferred Provider Organization” which means that my coverage will only extend to a list of doctors and hospitals that the insurance company provides. Should I want to visit a doctor that is not on my PPO list, I will probably be responsible for 100% of the costs. PPO’s are the most common of health care plans for individuals like myself, and as long as I can find a doctor and hospital that I like, I would imagine this is the plan for me.
- HMO: HMO stands for “Health Maintenance Organization” and those three letters continue to make consumers cringe. HMO’s are usually the plan you will find provided by your employer because it caters to group rates. While generally the cheapest of all health insurance policies, the rules and regulations that need to be followed in order to be covered are very strict. Getting medical treatment from anyone outside your HMO group must be first cleared by the HMO. It’s important to know exactly what is and is not covered because going in blind to a visit can result in a hefty bill later.
- HSA-Eligible Plans: HSA plans are extremely similar to PPO’s in the sense that you can choose which doctor and hospital you want to visit. The added benefit to this plan is that pre-taxed income can be put aside in an interest bearing account, known as a Health Savings Account (Hence the HSA) so when you file your taxes at the end of the year, less of your income is taxed. If you’re wondering why you wouldn’t always choose this plan vs. a PPO, the HSA-Eligible plans have a much higher deductible than that of a PPO. Continue reading What’s the Best Way To Find Health Insurance?
Help! I Need Affordable Health Insurance
The statistics are startling when it comes to the amount of uninsured Americans. So what do you do if you don’t have a job and can’t get affordable health insurance – either individually or for your family? Or if you have a job but still cannot afford the health insurance offered by an employer? There are options for finding more affordable health insurance.
There are low cost health insurance options out there that, in fact, many Americans have already implemented and are beating the rising battle against being uninsured.
Top 10 Ways to Find Affordable Health Insurance
1. COBRA
A good place to start looking for affordable health insurance is with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). If you are not employed you may be eligible to continue your previous employers’ health insurance through COBRA. This also applies to children going off to college… you may be able to continue on your parent’s insurance coverage through COBRA. This is a good option for people who may have lost their job and are still undergoing medical treatments. WARNING! This will not be an affordable health insurance option. The premiums will be much higher. It is best to gather all your available health insurance options first and then pick the best health insurance plan for you.
2. Worker’s Compensation Insurance
Sometimes, you don’t need to look far for affordable health insurance. Many people don’t realize that they may be covered under their state’s Workers’ Compensation program. If you are being treated for any work related injury, your employer must offer you treatment under their Workers’ Compensation program.
3. Medicaid
Medicaid is often overlooked as an affordable health insurance option. Some think if have a job, they won’t qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid will pay health care expenses for low-income families and individuals. Each state sets the eligibility requirements. If you are working and still don’t have enough to buy affordable health insurance, it doesn’t cost you to see if you or your children qualify for Medicaid, so it is always best to check Medicaid first before moving on to the next options. And, there is good news about Medicaid… more states are adding health care benefits for low-income families so if you don’t qualify now, keep informed of your state’s Medicaid and health insurance laws because you may qualify in the future.
4. Medicare
Most people know if they qualify for Medicare or not, but I need to add it to the list just to make sure it is not overlooked as an affordable health insurance choice. Medicare is provided by the government and administered by the Social Security Administration. If you are sixty-five years old or older you would qualify for Medicare. You may also qualify if you are getting Social Security disability benefits.
5. State High Risk Health Insurance Pool
If you are turned down by individual health insurance companies because of pre-existing conditions, your state may have a high risk health insurance pool you can obtain health insurance from. It may not be an affordable health insurance choice, but it may be the only individual or family health insurance option available to you that will pay for your pre-existing conditions if you don’t qualify for COBRA (see #1 of this list).
6. Individual and Family Health Insurance
This affordable health insurance option is fairly simple: you just go to an insurance company and buy individual or family health insurance the same way you would by home or auto insurance. These plans work similar to what an employer would offer their employees but would be more expensive since you don’t get the cheaper group rate and you would not have an employer contributing to some of the costs. Another drawback of individual and family health insurance plans is that there is usually a pre-existing conditions clause (they may not cover pre-existing conditions or may not cover them until after a certain period of time) and a medical exam.
7. High Deductible Health Plan
High deductible health plans are becoming a popular affordable health insurance option. Say someone did decide to cover their basic doctor’s visits and prescriptions out-of-pocket, but wanted the assurance of knowing that if they did need major medical care, such as for a surgery or disease, that they were covered. A high deductible health plan would do just that. It is designed to only “kick-in” after the out-of-pocket expenses (the doctor’s visits, prescriptions, ect.) reach the deductible, which is higher than a normal insurance plan. Using a health insurance plan such as this has a lower premium because the deductible is higher.
8. Short Term Health Insurance Coverage
This is a great affordable health insurance option for someone in-between jobs or who knows they will be starting a job soon. Short-term health insurance coverage works the same as an individual health insurance policy (see #6 above), but you will only be covered for a specific amount of time which would keep your premiums down. This is also a good option for someone who needs time to examine their individual and family health insurance choices but still would like to be covered quickly to avoid any coverage gaps. Continue reading Help! I Need Affordable Health Insurance