Workers already facing fewer pay raises are now up against a new reality: Their bosses are forcing them to pay more for their premiums and deductibles than ever before, an annual health care survey released today revealed.
Workers premiums increased much faster than their wages and general inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey.
Since 2001, family premiums jumped by 113%, compared with 34% for workers’ wages and 27% for inflation, the daunting data indicated.
So in reality the increasing cost of worker-financed health care plans is actually a pay cut for many employees -- just the latest indication that the American middle class is under assault by an outdated economic system skewed in favor of the wealthiest Americans.
Annual premiums for worker-sponsored family health coverage increased to $15,073 this year, a 9% increase from last year, the survey showed. On average, workers pay $4,129 and employers pay $10,944 toward those annual premiums.
"This year’s 9% increase in premiums is especially painful for workers and employers struggling through a weak recovery," said Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman.
Perhaps the only good news is that unemployed recent college graduates and other young people up to the age 26 are getting covered thankt to the health care reforms sponsored by President Obama.
"The law is helping millions of young adults to obtain health coverage. In the past, many of these young adults would have lost coverage when they left home or graduated college," said the study's lead author Gary Claxton, a Kaiser vice president and co-executive director of the Kaiser Initiative on Health Reform and Private Insurance.
The survey was conducted between January and May of 2011 and included 3,184 randomly selected, non-federal public and private firms with three or more employees.
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Paul Asked About Uninsured Facing Death & Debate Crowd Yells Let Him Die
Updated at 7:45 p.m. edt
At least one Tea Party official is condemning the hate-filled shouts from a handful of its rank and file who want the uninsured to die rather than to receive lifesaving medical treatment.
"It was terrible... Because two people made a stupid statement does not mean that the entire Tea Party agrees with that, we absolutely do not," said Billie Tucker, spokeswoman for the Tea Party Alliance of Florida.
"We wish they weren't in the room," Tucker told CNN today.
At least three different voices could be heard shouting "yes" or "yeah" when Wolf Bitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). There were also cheers and applause when Paul said it is people's choice to live or die.
end update
---[
Forget all the candidate box scores and prognostication, the real newsmaker at last night's CNN/Tea Party GOP presidential debate was the audience, in which some in the crowd shouted "Yes" when Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) was asked by Wolf Blitzer if America should let an uninsured man die facing a catastrophic health condition. Here is the video, courtesy of ThinkProgress:
At least one Tea Party official is condemning the hate-filled shouts from a handful of its rank and file who want the uninsured to die rather than to receive lifesaving medical treatment.
"It was terrible... Because two people made a stupid statement does not mean that the entire Tea Party agrees with that, we absolutely do not," said Billie Tucker, spokeswoman for the Tea Party Alliance of Florida.
"We wish they weren't in the room," Tucker told CNN today.
At least three different voices could be heard shouting "yes" or "yeah" when Wolf Bitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). There were also cheers and applause when Paul said it is people's choice to live or die.
end update
---[
Forget all the candidate box scores and prognostication, the real newsmaker at last night's CNN/Tea Party GOP presidential debate was the audience, in which some in the crowd shouted "Yes" when Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) was asked by Wolf Blitzer if America should let an uninsured man die facing a catastrophic health condition. Here is the video, courtesy of ThinkProgress:
UPDATE: The pro-health care reform organization Protect Your Care called on the GOP candidates, the Tea Party Express and other Tea Party affiliates to condemn the behavior of the people in the audience who shouted "Yes" when Blitzer asked if Paul thought the uninsured should be left to die. Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale released the following statement:
"Last night we got a disturbing view into the Tea Party’s extreme right-wing position on health care when members of the audience clapped and cheered the idea of letting someone without health insurance die. Even worse, none of the Republican candidates on stage expressed a word of disapproval as the Tea Party audience literally clapped for blood. This was a spectacle one would have expected back in the gladiatorial combat of ancient Rome, not at a presidential debate.
"This moment is a test of whether those who aspire to the office of the President of the United States have the leadership abilities to stand up to the extreme Tea Party elements that we saw on sickening display last night. The Republican candidates should condemn the extreme and un-American value of letting people die, as should the Tea Party Express and other Tea Party organizations."
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