By Alex Johnson
17 May 2019
A new poll conducted by the
Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Los Angeles Times found that
an extraordinary rise in the cost of health care plans and deductibles over the
last decade has imperiled the financial security of American workers.
According to the Times article
published earlier this month, health insurance deductibles have soared in
recent years, increasingly leaving Americans with unaffordable bills.
Since 2007, annual deductibles
in job-based health plans—the most common form of coverage—have increased
fourfold, with the average deductibles for health plans rising to an estimated
$1,300. The results have spurred on what the Times calls “an
affordability crisis” that has sent many households of the middle and working
class to, or on the brink of, financial ruin.
The ever-rising cost of health
insurance has placed an increasing number of workers in increasingly more
precarious conditions.
More than 4 in 10 workers
enrolled in plans with high deductibles don’t possess enough savings to pay for
them. In a country where more than 70 percent of the population live paycheck
to paycheck and where more than half have witnessed stagnant or declining
wages, one health emergency requiring an out-of-pocket payment could send an
individual or family into destitution.
According to government data
analyzed by the KFF for the Times, only half of single households and 60
percent of family households had more than $2,000 in savings in 2016.
Among the conclusions drawn
are that one in six Americans who received insurance through their jobs
reported that they had to make “difficult sacrifices to pay for their
healthcare plans” in 2018. These sacrifices included cutting back on food and
other desperate actions such as moving in with friends and family or taking on
extra jobs.
The study notes that the rise
in cost sharing is “endangering patients’ health” and has caused millions,
including people with serious illnesses, to skip care entirely to avoid the
expenses. Additionally, a larger number of workers are turning to GoFundMe
pages or other charities to seek financial relief.
The article admits that the
health care system is fueling “resentments” and “deepening inequalities, as
healthier and wealthier Americans are able to save for unexpected medical bills
while the less fortunate struggle to balance costly care with other
necessities.”
A 45-year-old Information
Technology worker told the Los Angeles Times that his family has been
severely handicapped by $5,000 in outstanding medical bills. Despite having a
household income of more than $80,000, he said his family has very little left
over to cover a $4,000 annual deductible.
“We shop at discount grocery
stores. My wife is couponing. We are putting every single bill we can on the
credit card.” After noting that even a family meal at McDonald’s has become a luxury,
he said, “we’re drowning.”
Another worker, a 55-year-old
nurse’s assistant working in a nursing home in Ohio, said she’s had to cut back
on taking trips to the grocery store as she struggled to pay off $1,000 in
medical bills after breaking her wrist. Other workers spoke of having to move
back in with their parents or take on extra jobs.
A separate poll found that
more than a quarter of workers had to put off vacation time or buying major
purchases to pay their medical bills. An additional quarter said they reduced
spending on clothing or other more-basic purchases.
A study published by the
American Cancer Society found that more than 56 percent of American workers in
the last year either struggled to pay their medical bills, delayed appointments
and doctors’ visits, or experienced turmoil over how they could afford care.
Individuals and families with medical conditions such as heart disease, cancer
and diabetes have suffered the most.
The staggering explosion in
the cost of deductibles followed the passage of Obama’s Affordable Care Act
(ACA) in 2010. Prior to the ACA, in 2006, nearly half of Americans had no
deductible, while the average cost of a deductible plan when adjusted for
inflation was only $376. By 2018, the average cost of a deductible had
ballooned to an estimated $1,350 while insurance premiums increased beyond the
rate of inflation.
These price increases provide
a dramatic exposure of the ACA, which was essentially authored by the insurance
companies and hospital giants to lower health care expenses for corporations
and the government, shifting the cost of rising premiums and deductibles onto
the backs of workers while at the same time enriching insurance companies.
UnitedHealth, for example,
accumulated $12 billion in profits over two years under the ACA, largely to the
benefit of its wealthy executives and investors.
While the stock market soars,
US life expectancy has declined over the past three years, largely due to the
opioid epidemic and the lack of affordable health care and other services.
In March, the White House
proposed a 12 percent reduction in funds for the Department of Health and Human
Services for the 2020 fiscal year, while slashing Medicaid over the next 10
years and allowing states to lower benefits for poor and lower-income workers.
The proposed cuts to Medicaid
and Medicare, which amount to around $1.4 trillion in total over the next
decade, will only exacerbate the cost of health care and worsen workers’
conditions.
Moreover, slashing social
programs aimed at treating medical and preventive care—including wellness
visits, immunizations, and screenings—will increase the number of people forced
to undergo emergency operations or serious hospital treatments, where costs are
much more expensive.
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