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| Economy |
| Higher Health Insurance Premiums This Year? Blame ObamaCare |
| 2011-10-12 |
| Most Americans saw their insurance bills jump this year, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The average employer-based premium for a family increased a startling 9% in 2011. Over the next decade, rates are expected to double. The Kaiser report is only the latest piece of research to indicate that ObamaCare isn’t driving down health care costs, as its proponents promised, but is instead accelerating their rise. This year, the average premium for a family hit $15,073 — $1,303, or 9%, higher than the year before. And that’s on top of increases of 5% in 2009 and 3% in 2010. Employees are picking up a substantial portion of that tab. They paid an average of $4,129 for their family insurance premiums this year — more than double what they shelled out 10 years ago. And that figure doesn’t include out-of-pocket health expenses. These premium hikes have outpaced general inflation and salary increases — and thus are swallowing a greater share of American households’ budgets. A study published in the September 2011 issue of Health Affairs found that burgeoning health costs have decimated nearly an entire decade’s worth of income gains. In 2009, the average American family had just $95 more to spend at will than it did in 1999. Worse, there’s no relief in sight. Next year, employers expect premiums to rise 7.2%, according to the National Business Group on Health. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #1 >Employees are picking up a substantial portion of that tab. They paid an average of $4,129 for their family insurance premiums this year -- more than double what they shelled out 10 years ago. And that figure doesn't include out-of-pocket health expenses. They should undo the whole FDR driven disaster and put the whole health costs on the salary line. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-10-12 18:01 |