Health insurance premiums are growing faster than families’ abilities to pay for them, according to a Bloomberg report citing a Commonwealth Fund study.
Private health insurance premiums have risen, on average, three times as fast as the median income for households in the past several years, the report said.
Additionally, health insurance deductibles have climbed nearly five times as fast as families’ incomes.
“Families are being priced out of the market,” Cathy Schoen, a Commonwealth Fund economist, told Bloomberg News.
“The consequences are less adequate insurance coverage, costlier insurance coverage, higher rates of no coverage and growing stress on the family.”
According to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, in more than a dozen states, health insurance premiums make up more than one-fifth of household income for those under the age of 65, about the same proportion of the nation’s GDP that is spent on health care.
“Holding onto health insurance is a very expensive proposition,” Schoen told the news agency. “The rapid increase has pulled resources out of the economy.”
