Health Care

[dbacks fan]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48988230


U.S. health insurance premiums have climbed faster than wages and inflation this year, and look poised to accelerate in 2013, adding to voter concerns about soaring health-care costs ahead of November elections.

A study released on Tuesday showed premiums for employer-sponsored health plans, which cover about 149 million Americans, grew a modest 4 percent to $15,745 in 2012. It was a substantially slower rate of growth than in past years, including 2011, when premiums jumped 9 percent.

But the study's authors at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, said higher costs still took a bigger bite from the income of middle-class employees, whose wages advanced only 1.7 percent, as employers shifted more health-care costs to their workers. (Read more: Are You Better Off?)

This year's 4 percent increase eclipsed a general inflation rate of 2.3 percent. Some employers told researchers that insurers plan to push premiums up another 7 percent in 2013, the study said.

(Read more: Study: Health-Care Act Will Force Insurance on 7.3 Million)

Health Care and the Election

Rising costs could present a challenge for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney in their battle for the White House. They also pose a dilemma for employers, which shoulder most of the cost and face the choice of absorbing ever-higher charges or making their workers pay more.

Polling data shows that soaring healthcare costs rank alongside the government's Medicare program for the elderly as a top campaign issue for voters.

The Obama administration is implementing healthcare reforms intended to rein in the cost of healthcare delivery, including provisions to restrain insurance premiums. But neither the president nor Romney has unveiled a comprehensive plan for controlling healthcare prices overall.

Just before the study was released, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that consumers have saved $2.1 billion on premiums under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is better known to voters as Obamacare.

[erfalf]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48988230


U.S. health insurance premiums have climbed faster than wages and inflation this year, and look poised to accelerate in 2013, adding to voter concerns about soaring health-care costs ahead of November elections.

A study released on Tuesday showed premiums for employer-sponsored health plans, which cover about 149 million Americans, grew a modest 4 percent to $15,745 in 2012. It was a substantially slower rate of growth than in past years, including 2011, when premiums jumped 9 percent.

But the study's authors at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, said higher costs still took a bigger bite from the income of middle-class employees, whose wages advanced only 1.7 percent, as employers shifted more health-care costs to their workers. (Read more: Are You Better Off?)

Is this anything like the CARD Act. I remember when they passed this, there were limitations on rate increases, but there was a window before it was implemented where they could do what they wanted. Many jacked up their rates as much as possible before the act went into effect. Is this similar to what is happening with insurance rates now?

[nathanm]

Interesting that the article fails to note that the spread between the general rate of inflation and the inflation of medical costs is less than half what it was 5 years ago.