Health insurance premiums for individuals who purchase coverage on their own are soaring, as outlined by a study released Monday. While lawmakers debated the health care reform bill, health insurance companies were busy trying 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. In the mean time, steadily rising insurance premiums, the a drop in the number of employers offering health coverage, and the recession swelled the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 3 million people in 2009.
Cost trends of health insurance
Premium hikes for health insurance for individuals far exceed increases within the premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, a new survey on health insurance cost trends from the Kaiser Family Foundation reports. The Associated Press reports 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 someplace around 13 percent. This year’s individual health insurance premium spike tops last year’s 5 percent average increase for employer-sponsored family coverage. Health insurance cost trends for employer-sponsored single coverage held to be really steady.
Health insurance for individuals is costly
The increasing cost of health insurance for individuals made news 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. According to the New York Times, when the proposed Anthem hikes were met with outrage from federal and state officials, there was little data 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 a number of months are not just extreme cases.”
A long wait to health care reform
The Kaiser survey highlights all of the challenges that about 14 million people younger than 65 who purchase their coverage in the individual market will face until changes under the health care reform law kick in 2014. By then, all Americans will be required to have health insurance or risk paying a fine. In the meantime, 52 percent of respondents within the Kaiser survey who already purchase their own individual health coverage said they would keep their current plan next year, while 32 percent said they were not sure. Another 14 percent said they would switch companies in hopes to cut costs.
Health insurance plans with some high deductibles
To save money, people are switching their individual health insurance plans to higher deductibles. The average deductible is $ 2,500. One in four people said their plan had an annual deductible of $ 5,000 or more. The number of those with high deductibles rose from 39 percent in 2007 to 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 doesn’t do very much to help them with their current needs. It was reported by USA Today that 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. Only 4 in 5 working adults actually have coverage. The percentage of uninsured adults of working age went way up 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.
Citations
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
