It is no secret that health insurance is expensive. The Affordable Care Act, which has been endlessly talked and argued about in the year since it was created, was designed to enable Americans to be able to find affordable health insurance. I would not have guessed it, but, a new study finds that Americans are spending more money on health insurance than they are on housing. It seems that there are a lot of hidden costs of health care that haven’t been taken into account before.
A study by Deloitte found that Americans are spending $363 billion more on health care than had been traditionally reported in the official government accounts. This comes to about 14.7% more costs than were recognized before the study. The extra costs are coming from an increase in what consumers are paying on health and medical care related costs outside of doctors, prescriptions, hospital visits, and health insurance premiums.
The Deloitte study noted an increase from 16.2% (on items that were traditionally reported by the government) to 19.9%, (when you take into account the discretionary spending on health care). In comparison, housing and utility costs are being reported at 18.8%.
Around 55% of the discretionary spending includes the estimated value of unpaid supervisory care that is given to a severely ill person by that person’s relatives and/or friends. About 8% of that is made up of complementary and alternative medicine that is given to the sick person, free of charge, by a practitioner. Another 8% is due to free mental health services.
Vitamin and mineral supplements, foods, and other nutritional products that are supplied to the sick person at no cost to that person makes up about 15% of that number. 6% is made up of “ambulatory care”, (which includes things like blood banks and some health promotion programs). The remaining amount is split between the cost of homes for the elderly, ambulance services, and weight loss facilities.
The Deloitte report was intended to gauge the total costs that consumers truly are spending out of their own pockets on health care services and products beyond what they are already spending on health insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. Out of pocket expenses for health care are becoming an increasing burden on American consumers. It is easy to see how all those extra expenses can quickly add up to more money than a person is spending on their mortgage payments, utility bills, and home repairs.
Image by Shannon Kringen on Flickr