Health Insurance Premiums Expected To Rise Nearly 10 Percent
According to an annual group health insurance survey, premiums are expected to rise nearly 10 percent next year.
The bad news for consumers is that rate increases outpace the U.S. government’s official rate of inflation, but the good news is that they are lower than premium increases in recent years.
The estimated January 2009 renewal increases of 8.5 percent for HMOs and 9.4 percent for PPOs continue a trend toward lower increases since 2002, when rate increases peaked at 16.1 percent.
While still outpacing the rate of inflation, it should be noted that the difference is much smaller this year as inflation has been accelerating with the sharp rise of commodities. Considering that inflation has been trending at over a 4% annualized rate since last November, this is one the smallest real rate increases in years.
Rising healthcare costs have been a major concern for many Americans and it is one of the major hot button topics during the presidential campaign year. Medicaid is quickly running out of money and the next administration is going to have to get together with Congress to find a solution.
Healthcare is expensive in this country, with the highest per capita expenditure in the world by a considerable margin. Employees have had to take an increased share of this burden in employer funded healthcare plans, as companies attempt to control skyrocketing costs.
Can universal healthcare work in this country? Probably not unless something can be done to bring down the costs. By comparison, Canada which has a relatively successful universal healthcare system had nearly half the per capita healthcare cost in 2007.
