With the meltdown of the American financial system dominating news reports, another long-running crisis continues unchecked, squeezing American businesses and workers as never before.
Last week, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation reported that family health insurance coverage provided by an employer now costs an average of $12,680 a year. The foundation’s authoritative report, based on a nationally representative survey of employers, found coverage for a single worker costs an average of $4,704 a year.
As recently as 2000, the average cost of family coverage was $6,348, while the cost of covering a single employee was $2,424.

Growth in the cost of health insurance premiums slowed this year to just 5 percent. Such good news may, in turn, slow the trend of businesses discontinuing employee health benefits. But the reduced rate of growth is the result of companies shifting an increasing proportion of insurance costs to their workers, who in many cases are even less able to afford them.
Workers will pay an average of $3,354 in premiums for family coverage this year. That’s more than double the $1,543 they paid as recently as 1999. And that doesn’t even count higher deductibles, co-insurance fees and co-pays.
With workers’ incomes stagnating as food and energy costs soar, more American families are being torpedoed by medical costs.

The nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change reported last week that one in five American families — 57 million people, most of them in families that have insurance coverage — had problems paying medical bills last year. That’s up from 15 percent in a 2003 survey.
More than half of these families said they had to borrow money to meet their medical expenses. About 20 percent said they considered declaring bankruptcy because of their difficulties.
Like the Kaiser report, the center’s findings were based on a national survey, and both were completed before the recent turmoil in American financial markets. Today, the impact of medical bills on families could be even more severe.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the American health care system as currently organized — wasteful, inefficient and poorly designed — is unsustainable. The solution isn’t more money; it’s a completely redesigned system.
Health care reform has been a hot topic in political campaigns at all levels over the past year. Both Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama have offered different reform plans, although neither of them calls for the fundamental transformation that many experts believe is needed.
As the debate continues, so does the squeeze on families and businesses. And the casualties, both commercial and personal, continue to mount.
With the meltdown of the American financial system dominating news reports, another long-running crisis continues unchecked, squeezing American businesses and workers as never before.
Last week, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation reported that family health insurance coverage provided by an employer now costs an average of $12,680 a year. The foundation’s authoritative report, based on a nationally representative survey of employers, found coverage for a single worker costs an average of $4,704 a year.
As recently as 2000, the average cost of family coverage was $6,348, while the cost of covering a single employee was $2,424.

Growth in the cost of health insurance premiums slowed this year to just 5 percent. Such good news may, in turn, slow the trend of businesses discontinuing employee health benefits. But the reduced rate of growth is the result of companies shifting an increasing proportion of insurance costs to their workers, who in many cases are even less able to afford them.
Workers will pay an average of $3,354 in premiums for family coverage this year. That’s more than double the $1,543 they paid as recently as 1999. And that doesn’t even count higher deductibles, co-insurance fees and co-pays.
With workers’ incomes stagnating as food and energy costs soar, more American families are being torpedoed by medical costs.

The nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change reported last week that one in five American families — 57 million people, most of them in families that have insurance coverage — had problems paying medical bills last year. That’s up from 15 percent in a 2003 survey.
More than half of these families said they had to borrow money to meet their medical expenses. About 20 percent said they considered declaring bankruptcy because of their difficulties.
Like the Kaiser report, the center’s findings were based on a national survey, and both were completed before the recent turmoil in American financial markets. Today, the impact of medical bills on families could be even more severe.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the American health care system as currently organized — wasteful, inefficient and poorly designed — is unsustainable. The solution isn’t more money; it’s a completely redesigned system.
Health care reform has been a hot topic in political campaigns at all levels over the past year. Both Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama have offered different reform plans, although neither of them calls for the fundamental transformation that many experts believe is needed.
As the debate continues, so does the squeeze on families and businesses. And the casualties, both commercial and personal, continue to mount.