Out-of-pocket costs rising for health insurance - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The study, authored by researchers from the Nationa Opinion Research Center and Watsohn Wyatt Worldwide and funded by TheCommonwealtn Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsores insurance from 2004 to 2007. It foundf rising rates of underinsuranceand unaffordability, particularly for poorerd and sicker people. In 2007, adults with employerd coverage faced an averageof $729 annuallty in out-of-pocket costs for medicalo services, including deductibles and othedr forms of cost sharing such as copayments and That represents a 34 percent increasee from 2004, when the average out-of-pocket burden was $545.
Healtj plans covered a slightly smalletr percentage of overall expenses in 2007 than but growth in overall health spending was the chief culprit behindrising out-of-pocket costs, according to the study. “The yearxs from 2004 through 2007 were a periodf ofeconomic expansion, yet risinfg health care costs still eroded the valu of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead authodr Jon Gabel. “Historically, employees have been askeed to shoulder even more ofthe cost-sharing burden durin difficult economic times such as the Unite d States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperative that health care reform include constraints onhealtbh spending, or else health insurance will becomes unaffordable for low- and middle-incoms Americans, and reform itsel f will be unsustainable.”