Interesting info from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog.
Consumers are shelling out more than ever for health care.
Even as the growth of total spending on medical care slows, an analysis from the actuaries at Milliman shows the bite on household budgets keeps getting bigger.
The cost of medical services, including health insurance premiums, for an average family in an employer-sponsored health plan will hit ,609 this year, up ,109, or 7.6% from 2007, according to an index Milliman developed to track expenditures.
While the increase is outpacing general inflation by a few percentage points, the rise for health care is the lowest in five years, Milliman says.
Why doesn’t the average family not sense that it’s getting a break? Well, for the second year in a row, the Milliman index shows that employees’ out-of-pocket costs rose. For 2008 that’s shaping up at 10.5% more than 2007.
So, between payroll deductions for premiums and their portion of medical bills, employees now foot about 40% of the cost of their employer health plans, Milliman’s actuaries say.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/14/shifting-health-costs-pinch-family-budgets/Thanks for posting this Lynn. Between this and the cost of gas and groceries, I know my budget is a bit tighter. I try to watch every penny I spend on health care. I question every test my doctor does on me to see if it is really necessary. If a doctor is not gonna treat, it is unnecessary to run the test. It is a personal responsibility of everyone to manage their health care spending and make sure what their doctors are ordering is totally necessary.
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