Will we ever face our health care crisis?
Health-Care Premiums Climbing Faster Than Inflation, Studies Say
September 12, 2007
Health-care premiums of employers and their workers have climbed more than twice as fast as inflation in 2007 -- to about double their cost in 2000 -- and look to rise at a similar or slightly faster clip next year, a pair of nationwide surveys show.
The average family premium has risen 6.1% in 2007, according to an annual study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. A widely watched barometer of employer health-care costs, the joint survey of 1,997 employers contained a modicum of good news: This is the fourth straight year premiums have decelerated since soaring nearly 14% in 2003.
But after a decade of inflation-topping increases, the annual cost for family coverage through an employer plan is now more than $12,000, well over what a minimum-wage worker earns in a year. Workers now pay on average $3,281 a year to cover their share of that family policy, double what they did in 2000, the survey found.
