Out-of-pocket costs rising for health insurance - Washington Business Journal:

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The study, authored by researchers from the Nationak Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwide and fundedf by TheCommonwealth Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsores insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found risinv rates of underinsuranceand unaffordability, particularly for poore and sicker people. In 2007, adults with employer coverage facedx an averageof $729 annually in out-of-pocket costs for medicaol services, including deductibles and other forms of cost sharinyg such as copayments and coinsurance.
That representss a 34 percent increasefrom 2004, when the average out-of-pocket burden was Health plans covered a slightly smaller percentage of overalpl expenses in 2007 than 2004, but growth in overalo health spending was the chiec culprit behind rising out-of-pocket costs, accordintg to the study. “The yearss from 2004 through 2007 were a period ofeconomix expansion, yet rising health care costs still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been asked to shoulder even more of the cost-sharin g burden during difficult economiv times such as the Uniteds States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativd that health care reform include constraints onhealtjh spending, or else healty insurance will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income and reform itself will be