“Kaisernetwork.org provides quick access to timely, reliable, and non-partisan information on national health issues through daily news summaries, webcasts, transcripts, access to public opinion data, and much more.” (from their website). The statistics from this report are scary and should give all of us cause for concern. Below are some statistics from their report Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace which is available on their website.
Annual private employer-sponsored insurance premiums averaged $3,695 for single coverage and $9,950 for family coverage in 2004. Broken down into monthly figures these numbers are $308/month for a single person and $830/month for a family.
From 2001-2004, average earnings increased 4%, 2.6%, 3%, 2.2% respectively. Over the same period, health insurance premiums increased 10.9, 11.9, 12.9 and 13.2% respectively. At their lowest level, health insurance premiums increased 2.5 times faster than wages.
From 1996-2004, the average annual increase in health plan premiums was 8.5%.
For those of you who think national health care is a bad idea, here is some very bad news: the public sector already pays for 44.2% of health expenditures.
The percent of the nonelderly population without insurance rose from 17.3% in 2002 to 17.7% in 2003 (or 44.7 million uninsured), an increase of 1.4 million over 2002. The proportion of Americans with employer-based insurance declined from 63.3% in 2002 to 61.9% in 2003.
The percentage of firms with 3-199 employees that offer health insurance decreased from 68%-63% from 2002-2004.
Only 23 percent of part-time workers have access to their employer’s health insurance.
In 2004, the average annual increase for retiree health care costs was 11%
The average annual weighted retiree cost increase in 2004 was 24%.
Do you think maybe it’s time to deal with this problem?