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

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The study, authored by researchers from the National Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwid and funded by TheCommonwealthb Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It founed rising rates of underinsurance and particularly for poorer and sicker In 2007, adults with employer coveragre faced an average of $729 annuall y in out-of-pocket costs for medical services, including deductibleas and other forms of cost sharing such as copaymenta and coinsurance. That represents a 34 percent increase from when theaverage out-of-pockegt burden was $545.
Health plans covered a slightly smaller percentage of overall expensesx in 2007than 2004, but growthj in overall health spending was the chief culprir behind rising out-of-pocket costs, accordinfg to the study. “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a periodd ofeconomic expansion, yet rising health care costs stilkl eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been askedr to shoulder even more of the cost-sharing burden durint difficult economic times such as the Uniteds States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativ e that health care reform include constraints onhealth spending, or else healty insurance will become unaffordable for low- and middle-incomew Americans, and reform itself will be unsustainable.”