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[ Ominous Trends in Health Care ... ]

Posted on: Thursday, 13 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

Ominous trends in health care

More gloom on the health care horizon. According to a new survey on health costs and coverage conducted for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, insurance premiums continue to increase at about triple the rate of inflation. Comprehensive family coverage is now virtually out of reach for low-wage workers. And the number of companies offering health insurance to their workers is steadily shrinking.

With safety net programs like Medicaid being dismantled at the state and federal levels and 45.8 million Americans uninsured, there are important implications to the survey. It isn't just the poor and unemployed who need government help with health care. As costs continue to grow, more and more people will be priced out of the insurance system.

... Without significant changes, we're steaming toward a future where millions more Americans won't be able to afford health insurance and those who can must pay through the nose.

We don't need more ominous data to tell us that health care in America is heading for an iceberg; that's perfectly clear. It's time to start charting a different course.

Perhaps Congress will pay attention when enough employers strangled by rising health care costs and enough employees left out in the cold demand it.

-- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Source: Daily Breeze

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