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

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The study, authored by researchers from the Nationalp Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwidwe and funded by The Commonwealth examines trendsin employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found risinvg rates of underinsuranceand unaffordability, particularly for poorer and sicker In 2007, adults with employer coverag e faced an average of $729 annually in out-of-pocketf costs for medical services, including deductiblesw and other forms of cost sharing such as copayments and coinsurance. That representw a 34 percent increase from when theaverage out-of-pocket burden was $545.
Healtg plans covered a slightly smaller percentage of overall expenses in 2007than 2004, but growthg in overall health spending was the chief culprit behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a period of economicc expansion, yet rising health care costsx still eroded the value of employer-sponsored said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been asked to shoulder even more of the cost-sharinv burden during difficult economic timesd such as the United State s is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativer that health care reform include constraints onhealthb spending, or else health insurance will become unaffordablw for low- and middle-income Americans, and reform itselr will be unsustainable.”