Health care costs are destroying American families (Salon) "slow-eugenics"
“The average premium for family coverage has increased 22% over the last five years and 54% over the last ten years, significantly more than either workers’ wages or inflation,” according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Foundation of employer-sponsored health coverage.
The Kaiser survey provides a uniquely detailed analysis and is based on more than 2,000 interviews with public and private firms. It reported that annual premiums for employer-sponsored health care plans reached $20,576 this year, an increase of 5%, "with workers on average paying $6,015 toward the cost of their coverage."
Almost all workers in these plans not only share in the premium cost but have to absorb an annual deductible. That too has increased rapidly, Kaiser reports, by 36% over the last five years and a remarkable 100% over the last 10 years.
In a study published in May of this year in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers concluded that 137 million Americans struggled with medical debt. Adults under 65 (and hence not eligible for Medicare) without health insurance fared the worst. “With trends towards higher patient cost-sharing and increasing health care costs, risks of hardship may increase in the future,” the study concluded"