The Impact of Rising Cost of Health Care on Your Pocket Book

FAMILIES AND BUSINESSES

• We have by far the most expensive health care system in the world.  We spend 50% more per person on health care than the next most costly nation.  Americans now spend more on health care than on housing or food. 
• The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person.
• According to one government analysis, if we do nothing, health expenditures in the U.S. could grow from $2.5 trillion in 2009 to more than $7 trillion in 2025.
• The average cost of an employer-based family insurance policy in 2008 was $12,680, which was nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job
  
• Health care costs have doubled over the last decade.  Costs are rising for all Americans, regardless of whether they have insurance through their employer.   Premiums for employer-provided coverage have doubled over the last 9 years -- a rate 4 times faster than wages.
• Americans who are covered by their employers are spending more and more out of pocket. Health care spending for Americans with employer-sponsored insurance increased 32% between 2001 and 2006
• Since 2004, the number of under-insured families—those who have health insurance but who still end up spending more than 10% of their income on health care costs—rose by 60%.
• A recent survey found that 60% of Americans, with and without insurance, cut back on health care due to cost.  Many relied upon home remedies, skipped recommended treatment, cut pills in half or skipped doses and took other steps forced upon them by high costs (Kaiser).     
  
• American businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain coverage for their employees and to compete internationally because of escalating health care costs.
• The burdens are especially severe for small businesses, which are dropping coverage for their workers at an alarming rate.  Nearly one-third of the uninsured – 13 million Americans – work for companies with fewer than 100 employees. (helping the bottom line report)
• In the last two years, more than half of the small businesses that do offer insurance switched to plans requiring their workers to pay more out of pocket.  One third report that they reduced benefits. (helping the bottom line report)
  
• Small businesses say high health costs are impeding their ability to compete, expand and hire more workers.  Among small businesses that offer coverage, 40% report spending more than 10% of their payroll on health costs. (helping the bottom line report)
• Rising health costs represent the greatest threat to our long-term economic stability.  Health care costs doubled from 1996 to 2006. If this rapid health cost growth persists, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2025, 25 percent of our economic output will be tied up in the health system, which will limit other investments and priorities.
• Even for people with health care, all it takes is one stroke of bad luck to become one of the nearly 46 million uninsured -- or the millions who have health care, but can’t afford it.
• For every 1% increase in unemployment, 1 million Americans lose their health insurance. Since December 2007, 9 million Americans have lost employer-sponsored health insurance (PROJECTION from Kaiser).

For more information, go to http://www.healthreform.gov/

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