Family coverage has skyrocketed since 2003, showing the increasing expense for those paying for plans.
According to the latest health insurance data from the Commonwealth Fund in a recently released report, the total cost for a family plan – for both employers and for employees – broke the $15,000 mark last year, which represented an increase of 62 percent since 2003.
Wages, on the other hand, increased by only 11 percent during that same period of time.
The cost of commercial health insurance has undergone an increase in its price tag that is five times greater than family incomes since that year. This has occurred at the same time that the amount of coverage and financial security that it has been providing has decreased, said the report. The report also stated that this occurrence highlights the way in which the medical industry is swallowing up a growing portion of the private economy.
Last year, the average total cost of health insurance for a family reached $15,022.
This included the combined amount that was paid by both employers and the employees. Should the same trend continue in terms of the rate by which the health insurance and wages are currently increasing, the report estimates that by the year 2020, coverage for a family will cost nearly $25,000.
That said, according to data from Modern Healthcare, the insurance news is even greater. They reported that the amount that workers were spending on their own individual health insurance premiums have spiked by 74 percent over the last eight years, bringing the annual average to $3,962. They also reported that there was not a single state in which the increases in worker wages matched the rate by which the premiums rose. This analysis spanned from 2003 through 2011.
The Commonwealth Fund’s report showed that both households and businesses were therefore experiencing a growing amount of strain as a result of the expense that was involved in maintaining health insurance coverage and the ever rising costs. It stated that “been consuming resources that employers might otherwise have earmarked for salary or wage increases, for other benefits or for hiring additional workers.”
