Health insurance premiums jump again

Presidential candidates take the issue of health care costs to voters.

By Geri Aston, AMNews staff. Sept. 27, 2004.

Washington -- The fourth consecutive year of double-digit increases in workers' health insurance premiums portends more bad news in terms of the number of Americans without coverage, health experts said at a recent briefing.

"Health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable in our country," said Drew Altman, PhD, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We unfortunately should expect to see the ranks of the uninsured continue to tick up." The Census Bureau recently announced that the number of Americans lacking health coverage reached 45 million in 2003.

With states still facing budget trouble, they won't be able to expand their Medicaid and children's health insurance programs to pick up the slack, Dr. Altman said.

"That safety net isn't there as it was in some past years to catch a lot of people," he said.

According to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 11.2% this year -- about five times inflation and growth in workers' earnings. Although the premium increase is lower than it has been in the past few years, the overall trend is harming health care access, said Mary Pittman, the trust's president.