WP: Health Care Costs, Spending Up

[Pirate Smile]

Health Care Costs, Spending Up
More in Middle Class Could Join Ranks of the Uninsured

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 21, 2005; Page A13

After hints that the rapid growth in health care spending was slowing, a report being released today suggests the brief reprieve has stalled and the soaring costs are likely to force more people out of the market.

Health spending by privately insured Americans rose 8.2 percent in 2004, virtually the same increase as the previous year, according to analysts at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research group.


Prescription drug spending rose in 2004 but at a slower rate than in 2003. Higher copayments may have steered some consumers to lower-cost drugs. (By Nati Harnik -- Associated Press)

More significantly, for the eighth straight year the growth in medical costs far outpaced the growth of wages -- by nearly four times in 2004 -- a trend that suggests more Americans will be unable to afford their health insurance, said the group's president, Paul Ginsburg.

"This is very worrisome to me," said Ginsburg, one of three authors of the study being published by the journal Health Affairs. "If the cost trend stays at the level it is today -- well above the trend of earnings -- this could lead to a substantial decline in the people with insurance."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001169.html

[rodeodance]

1. I think the Dems should take the lead on this-do something that people

actully CARE about. make it their issue.

[Deja Q]

3. They won't. They're bought and paid for too.

When you get a job that has bgreat benefits and greater post-"service" benefits, they're not going to change a damn thing.

They represent us as much as a paranoid skunk with oversized stink glands would.

[Cobalt Violet]

2. Well I know I can't afford to buy into my work's plan. n/t

[AmandaRuth]

4. You want to hear about how it affects a true middle class family

We pay $266 a month for coverage - medical dental and vision.

My daughter MiniAmanda had to go to the doctor for a minor problem that required a lab test. We paid $20.00 for the copay. Got a bill a little later for $25.00 which was the amount the insurance did not cover for the office visit and a bill for $75.00 for the balance on the lab work that the also was not covered by insurance. For a MINOR problem. My family may go to the doctor 2 or 3 times a year.

This is supposed the be the cheap plan, through Aetna. We are a true middle class family making around $65,000 a year.

I shudder to think what would happen if one of us really got sick, and especially now with the bankruptcy laws. The dems should start looking at how medical costs are affecting working families, the ones who carry insurance.

[Iowa]

5. The current system is collapsing...

It's not sustainable. At some point (before too long) there will be so many people without insurance that the ones left won't be able to shoulder the costs of the system, and they'll be forced to drop too. We're in a downward spiral that will accelerate as we go. The sooner the present employer based system collapses, the better, IMHO. But I really feel for those families on the outside looking in who will be hammered by a serious illness/injury before a new system evolves. Many people will suffer and die because our worthless politicians continue to ignore the problem. It could be any of us.

[lovuian]

6. Costs rise 8.2% Raise rise 2% Insurance premiums rise and yet

they pay less!!!

the system is collapsing and add Immigrants coming in with no insurance and American taxpayer pays for their medical.

the hospitals won't be able to make any profit on people who are not insured and if Insurance keep cutting what they pay for Americans will drop the insurance and be self pay!!!

Its coming because we have a aging population!!!