California healthcare costs surge five times faster than earnings
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In case you have been on the moon for the last eight years and had failed to notice that your employer-based healthcare insurance is taking a growing bite of your paycheck, Families USA is here to help.
The healthcare insurance watchdog group released its analysis Wednesday of private healthcare insurance costs in California -- the latest in its state-by-state tally of how much Americans are paying for their healthcare insurance. It found that while the median earnings of California workers rose by just under $5,000 -- to $30,702 -- between 2000 and 2008, the average cost of an employer-sponsored family health insurance policy almost doubled, from $6,227 to $12,194.
And while employers shouldered the bulk of those increasing costs -- by all accounts a significant drag on businesses -- workers’ contributions to their healthcare premiums actually grew faster, rising from $1,544 to $3,256 in that eight-year timeframe, according to Families USA.
The result: For an employed individual carrying a family policy with her employer, premiums have risen five time faster than earnings. And that rise has claimed much of California workers’ meager pay hikes since 2000.
As if that’s not enough, says Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), Californians’ skyrocketing health insurance premiums are buying them less and less as employers scale back their coverage to lower costs. Workers are digging into their pockets to pay higher copays and to pay for services that are no longer covered by their employer-sponsored plans.
Capps says the Families USA findings underscore the importance of maintaining the viability of employer-sponsored plans, which some fear could be undermined by a proposal by Republican presidential nominee John McCain to grant each taxpayer a $5,000 tax credit to buy health insurance.
-- Melissa Healy
