Do you get your health insurance through your employer? If so, you may have noticed that you are paying more for monthly premiums, co-pays, and to see specialists now, then what it cost you in the past for the same services. It turns out that workers are paying more for their health insurance, despite the fact that the actual price of family health insurance didn’t go up very much in 2009.
There are many different types of health insurance, to choose from. There are still a lot of people, myself included, who have no form of health insurance whatsoever. A large number of American’s are getting their health insurance from their employer, as part of a benefits package. Often, this benefit, the ability to obtain health insurance for yourself and your family, is the biggest reason why a person applied for a particular job. Having health insurance is extremely important. Without it, you run the risk of facing bankruptcy due to an expensive hospital stay, a chronic illness, or an accident.
It turns out that workers are paying dearly for the health insurance that they got through their employer. Insurance premiums have been going up, but only by 3%. In general, employer based insurance plans are paid for in part by a contribution from the employer, and in part, (a larger part), by the individual employee. According to a survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust, employers have decided not to increase their own contribution to employee’s health insurance, despite the fact that the premiums went up by 3%. At the same time, employers have been increasing the amount of money that an individual worker will pay for the privilege of having health insurance, by 14%.
The results are discouraging. Workers have no choice but to pay the extra costs, unless they want to lose their health insurance. The increased cost of the health insurance itself does not cover other associated costs. The cost of a co-pay when a worker saw a doctor also went up. Deductibles also increased. Up to 27% of workers now are paying deductibles of at least $1,000. This means that workers are paying higher premiums, higher co-pays, and more out-of-pocket costs before the health insurance they get through their employer will cover anything at all. In addition to these costs, many employers are choosing health insurance plans for their employees based solely on what the plan will cost them, the employer. The employers are not very interested in getting the best quality health insurance plan for their employees anymore. Sadly, most of the news articles I read about this topic indicate that this is what can be expected from employer based health insurance from now on.
Image by TheTruthAbout on Flickr