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

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The study, authored by researchers from the Nationa Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwid e and funded by TheCommonwealth Fund, examinezs trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It founs rising rates of underinsuranceand unaffordability, particularly for poorer and sicker people. In adults with employer coverage faced an averagdof $729 annually in out-of-pocket costs for medical services, including deductibled and other forms of cost sharinb such as copayments and coinsurance. That represents a 34 percenr increasefrom 2004, when the average out-of-pocket burden was $545.
Healthu plans covered a slightly smaller percentage of overal l expenses in 2007than 2004, but growtnh in overall health spending was the chief culpri t behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the study. “Th e years from 2004 through 2007 were a period ofeconomic expansion, yet rising health care coste still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead authotr Jon Gabel.
“Historically, employees have been asked to shouldet even more ofthe cost-sharing burden during difficult economic times such as the Unitefd States is now Hence, it is imperative that healtbh care reform include constraints on health spending, or else health insurancw will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income Americans, and reform itself will be