According to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, workers are paying on average 14%, or $482, more toward the cost of family health coverage in 2010 than they did in 2009.
Since 2005, workers' contributions to premiums have gone up 47 percent, while overall premiums rose 27 percent, wages increased 18 percent, and inflation rose 12 percent.According to the survey, Many employers are also raising the annual deductibles workers must pay before their health plans begin to share most health care costs. A total of 27 percent of covered workers now face annual deductibles of at least $1,000, up from 22 percent in 2009, the survey finds. Among small firms (3-199 workers), 46 percent face such deductibles. Click here for more information.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Employees Are Paying a Larger Share of Health Insurance Coverage
Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan Announce National Coalition to Enroll Uninsured Kids in Health Care
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlighted last Friday the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge to enroll five million children in Medicaid and CHIP within five years. Since Sebelius announced the Challenge last February, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have built an unprecedented coalition of partners, ranging from state governors to national advocacy organizations, who have stepped up to the challenge to enroll kids and educate families.Although health coverage is currently available to children in families with incomes up to about $45,000 per year in nearly every state, an estimated five million uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but not enrolled.
Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan were joined by Genevieve Kenney of the Urban Institute, whose new report Five Million Eligible But Uninsured: Who and Where Are the Children Yet to Enroll in Medicaid And The Children's Health Insurance Program? was released in Health Affairs on-line today along with a Health Affairs Commentary by Secretary Sebelius, Rising to the Challenge: Tools for Enrolling Eligible Children in Health Coverage. Click here to view the report.
