Cost of Insurance Outpacing Income, Study Finds
Americans who get health insurance for their families through their jobs have seen their premiums increase ten times faster than their income in recent years, a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds.
Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the report, Squeezed: How Costs for Insuring Families Are Outpacing Income (12 pages, PDF), found that, nationwide, the amount employees pay for family coverage increased nearly 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while family policyholders' income increased just 3 percent. The report also found that the proportion of insurance premiums workers pay for family coverage remained constant at about 24 percent during that period, while the dollar amount that workers contribute increased by nearly $2,500.
According to the report, which was released to coincide with Cover the Uninsured Week, the number of private-sector employers nationwide who offered health insurance benefits to their employees fell by 30,000 from 2001 to 2005, with 4.1 million fewer people working for such employers. Meanwhile, the number of Americans with private health insurance fell nearly 2.4 million — or 6 percent — during the same period. According to the latest Census Bureau data, 47 million Americans do not have any health insurance.
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