From Deseret News archives:
Health-care costs eclipsing paychecks
A report issued Thursday by the nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer health organization Families USA shows that from 2000 to 2007, health insurance premiums increased by 85 percent while median incomes during those locally robust economic times rose by only 17 percent.
The report notes that despite the good economic times and gains in higher take-home pay, employers were shifting to "insurance light" plans with pared-down benefits, higher co-payments, a trend of denied payments for medical procedures already pre-approved, higher deductibles and much stricter pre-existing condition exclusions.
"Bottom line," he added, "this is the definitive example of people paying a lot more and getting a lot less."
This new pile of health-care woes comes with a cherry on top: The cost of medical care is routinely driving people further into debt and into bankruptcy sometimes, with more than half of Utah bankruptcies due, at least in part, to unpaid medical bills.
Unlike the collapse on Wall Street, the health-care crisis could be seen coming for years, it's not something abstract, and fixing it isn't subject to stock-market-type mood swings, Pollack said, adding that when the dust settles in the financial markets and the presidential election, the health-care crisis will loom large again.
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