Thursday, September 17, 2009

Health Care Cost up 131%

BE Healthy!

When I see these numbers, I get more and more convinced that shuffling who pays for health care is not the answer. Isn't it time to actually BE healthy?

This is a quote from Dr. Gerry Clum, President of Life Chiropractic College West.

"Mid-September also brings us an annual report from the Kaiser Family Foundation on the cost of health care insurance in the United States. In the past year, premiums have risen 5% and, in the past decade, they have risen 131%. This is in contrast to an increase in wages over the past decade of 38% and an inflation rate of 28% for the period. This means health care costs rose at a rate 4.67 times as great as inflation. Some other numbers from the KFF folks...if family coverage increases at a rate of 6.1%, as anticipated, by 2019, the annual cost of the average family's health care insurance will be $24,000...this year, the average individual cost was $4,824 and the average family cost was $13,375...60% of employers provide coverage, down from 66% a decade ago...more than 40% of employers indicated they would be shifting more health insurance cost to the employee...on average, employers pay 74% of the cost of family coverage. The full report from the Kaiser Family Foundation can be found at www.kff.org."

I know from personal experience that MA cost are substantially higher. Now you know why the family budget just doesn't allow as nice a car or as exotic a vacation as it used to. But for some, it is cutting into healthful endeavors like a gym membership, unprocessed food, stress reducing activities. It is fascinating to see how rising health care cost has become a clear cause of poorer health. More on that in a later post...

Dr. Jean-Marc

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