Outpace Inflation
April 2008
A new analysis of government statistics released this week revealed what the American public already knows, and what legislators need to keep in mind: the growing cost of family health insurance is far outpacing incomes.
But by exactly how much seems to be the shocking revelation. From 2001 to 2005 medical insurance costs went up 30%, but during that same time incomes increased by only 3%. Nationally, insurance costs are rising 10 times faster than incomes, revealing why it is that so many families are struggling to pay for family health insurance.
By the year 2016 an estimated 20% of our gross domestic product will be spent on health care, sobering news when you consider that among industrialized nations we rank towards the bottom in minimizing preventable death.
And it isn't just families who are feeling the pain of the growing medical insurance premium. Individuals pay more than those in group plans, and employers are struggling to offer coverage to their employees without going out of business. Many small businesses can't afford to offer medical insurance at all, and those that do can't usually extend that coverage into family health insurance.
One of the major problems seems to be that the cost of new medical technologies and medicines - which make our health care system the "cutting edge" for those who can afford it - has also made health care too expensive for the poor and most of the middle class. The trick is to provide medical insurance, and especially family health insurance, at affordable costs while at the same time fostering the kind of medical environment where new technologies can flourish.
But as local, state, and federal legislation continues to struggle with our health care crisis, one thing is certain; providing coverage to working Americans and their families is the only solution we can afford to settle on.
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