Healthcare

National Trend #4

While the growing health care crisis is focused on the uninsured, CEO and its members have become increasingly concerned about workers who are under-insured as evidenced by the large numbers of employee’s at large companies on HUSKY.  According to a recent issue briefing released by Families USA[7]: 

o       Every 30 seconds an American files for bankruptcy after having a health problem;

o       About half of all personal bankruptcy cases are due to medical reasons;

o       Among those whose illness led to bankruptcy more than 3 in 4 HAD insurance at the onset of the illness;

o       The majority of medically bankrupt had been to college, had responsible jobs and been homeowners;

o       Almost 1 in 5 Americans reported postponing seeking medical care and of those, more than 1 in 3 said the ordeal resulted in a temporary disability.

The culprit is increasing deductibles and other forms of cost sharing.  Between 2001 and 2004, the average deductible in a PPO plan rose by 40%.[8]  Between 2003 and 2004, premiums for employer sponsored health insurance rose 11.2%.  When asked in a study by Kaiser Foundation, 52% of large firms and 15% of small firms said they were “very likely” go increase the amount employees pay for health insurance.[9]  In this same survey, 56% of firms offering health benefits shopped for a new plan in the past year.  Of those, firms with more than 5000 employee’s, are more likely to report switching carriers, which can be stressful and problematic for many employees[10]. 

Data on the under-insured problem in Connecticut is difficult to quantify for several reasons including the lack of a standard for comparison sake concerning what is quality health coverage and the sentiment that any insurance is better than no insurance.  As is true nationally, residents of Connecticut continue to take on more and more of the costs for their own health coverage and are not immune to national trends towards privatizing health care coverage in the form catastrophic health plans combined with health savings accounts and other so called consumer driven alternatives.