JULIE APPLEBY
USA TODAY
The cost of health insurance provided by employers rose an average of 11.2 percent this year and is expected to rise again in 2005, adding to the economic anxiety of workers and businesses.
It is the fourth-straight year of double-digit premium increases.
For the first time, the average cost of a family policy in the most popular type of insurance - known as a PPO - went above $10,000, according to an annual survey of more than 3,000 large and small employers conducted by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
As the annual cost employers pay goes up, so do dollars workers pay toward their coverage. This year, workers paid an average of $2,691 toward a family policy, and many also are paying more for deductibles and co-payments. Fifty-two percent of the large employers surveyed said they were very likely to increase the amount workers pay for coverage.
The premium increase, although below the 13.9 percent jump seen in 2003, is about five times the rates of inflation and wage growth, which were around 2.2 percent.
"I see no scenario for the future that doesn't have health-care costs continue to outpace increases in wages and inflation by a wide margin," says Drew Altman, chief executive of the Kaiser foundation.
In addition to having employees pay more toward coverage, employers are taking other steps, including closer oversight of care provided to employees who suffer from chronic diseases. Some employers are using financial incentives to urge workers to be healthy.
At Worthington Industries, an Ohio-based manufacturer, workers who sign up for a wellness program, which includes cholesterol and high blood pressure tests, have their share of premiums waived.
At Big Kaiser Precision Tooling, a machine tool maker in Elk Grove Village, Ill., the company puts $650 a year per worker into special accounts to use toward a $1,000 annual deductible. Workers who don't use the full amount can roll it over or take it with them if they leave. They also can win "points" toward prizes, such as movie tickets or vacations, for exercising, eating right and getting checkups.
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Stumble It!
The problem with these theories is that people who are bad, and make bad decisions get punished and so we should reward the good people making good decisions and the others if they can't pay, they will suffer. It isn't a choice, life happens, illness happens to anyone.
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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?
Perhaps he/she doesn't know what that means.
I do. You got no choice, baby.
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"One crisis at a time is life's motto" - Carl Sagan
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca
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Dave Ruston
But, if we were to extropolate "anon's" supposition, we could dispense completely with government, and let the corporations run everything. They do in fact anyway, but by formalizing it, we could achieve nirvana much sooner.
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RickW
It is also interesting to note that a $1000 deductible means that all family doctor visits are paid out of pocket. This could easily amount to hundreds of dollars per year for a family and could easily reach the $1000 mark if any of them have a chronic illness.
Encouraging healthy living is an admirable goal but this can be done without free market "incentives."
Of course chronic diseases should be covered but preachy 'your government says exercise' type commercials aren't getting anyone's butt off the couch, commercials like that only make friends of the Liberal Party rich.
Everyone gets motivated when it comes to putting or keeping money in their pocket, even socialists understand that - that's why they always want to spend other people's money.
Unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food, fast food is less healthy but with less time for cooking we chose it, after working two or three part-time jobs can a person really find time to exercise?
These all contribute to our health factors, physical ed isn't affordable in school, children can't play in a park without an adult to supervise, we have created the monster by buying into the corporate reality of working like machines, that is the health crisis.
Stress is another contributor to health, heart disease, obesity etc, who doesn't have stress? It is far more complex than we realize.
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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?
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RickW
That would mean we have no more control over private healthcare.
Let's not let that happen.
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"One crisis at a time is life's motto" - Carl Sagan
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca