Sense on Cents

I have often thought that staying physically fit is not only a good way to live but also makes enormous economic sense as well. Not that staying fit will keep one’s healthcare premiums totally in check. The simple fact is the cost of healthcare insurance in our country is downright scary. The pace of change in healthcare premiums has been even scarier. How much so? Do you care to make a best guess as to what the average increase in a family’s annual healthcare premium has been over the last decade? 50%? Keep going? 75%? Still too low? 90%? Getting closer, but still not there. The Wall Street Journal gives us this answer and much more in writing, Employers Sharply Raise Workers’ Share of Health Costs:

Overall, annual premiums for families reached an average of $13,770 this year, up 114% since 2000.

Will Obamacare address and mitigate the underlying forces driving this increase? Honestly, I am not optimistic. I view Obamacare as nothing more than another of the redistribution and rationing programs in which those who can pay will absorb the costs for those who can’t. But how are these increases truly being absorbed? To an ever increasing extent, the cost of healthcare is being shifted from the employer to the employees. The WSJ further highlights this reality in writing: (more…)