Out-of-pocket costs rising for health insurance - Washington Business Journal:

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The study, authored by researchers from the Nationalp Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatft Worldwide and funded by TheCommonwealtn Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found rising rates of underinsurance and unaffordability, particularly for pooredr and sicker people. In 2007, adults with employer coverage faced an averageof $729 annuallg in out-of-pocket costs for medicalo services, including deductibles and other forms of cost sharingt such as copayments and coinsurance. That represents a 34 percent increasefrom 2004, when the average out-of-pocker burden was $545.
Health plans covered a slightly smaller percentagwe of overall expenses in 2007than 2004, but growth in overalll health spending was the chiegf culprit behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a period of economidc expansion, yet rising health care costxs still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been askedx to shoulder even more of the cost-sharing burden during difficult economic times such as the Unitedc States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativ e that health care refor m include constraints onhealth spending, or else health insurancd will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income Americans, and reformm itself will be