Washington Post – Online
Medical costs continue to rise for American’s, even those with Health Insurance. The latest report from the health care consulting firm Milliman puts the cost at $17,000 a year for a family of four. Consistent with trends, the prediction is that more employers will shift the cost onto employees leaving them to pay more.
Families of four may want to stash away roughly $17,000 this year to pay for the cost of health-care services, according to the recently-released Milliman Medical Index. Produced by a consulting firm that advises health-care plan sponsors and participants, the MMI serves as a measure of the average annual medical spending of typical American families covered by a PPO. This year’s $17,000 price tag reflects a 7.4 percent increase from 2008. The median family income in 2008 was around $67,000, and if that amount does not change significantly, then this year’s projected spending represents about 25 percent of a family’s income.
Health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn crunched the 2009 projected cost in her blog, Health Populi and concluded that a rise in outpatient costs triggered this year’s projected increase. Outpatient costs have risen 10 percent this year, according to the MMI. Unit cost, rather than utilization, has gone up. As Congress continues to debate health-care reform, Sarasohn-Kahn believes companies will be unable to help cover the rise in health-care costs. She projects in her blog that “employers who sponsor health insurance will lay more health cost burden onto insured employees as their subsidy declines and the worker’s subsidy increases.”