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Got Health Insurance? You’re Paying More Than $1,000/Year in a Hidden Tax |
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If you and your family have health insurance, you’re paying more than $1,000 a year in a “hidden tax” that’s part of your premium costs.
A new study by the health care advocacy group Families USA finds this $1,017 “undisclosed surcharge” is the cost of caring for the nation’s more than 46 million—and growing—uninsured.
Private health insurance premiums are higher, at least in part, because uninsured people who receive health care often cannot afford to pay the full amount themselves. The costs of this uncompensated care are shifted to those who have insurance, ultimately resulting in higher insurance premiums for businesses and families.
The study reinforces the argument that health care reform that provides comprehensive, high-quality health care to all, makes economic sense. According to “Hidden Health Tax: Americans Pay a Premium,” during 2007 and 2008, one of every three nonelderly Americans—86.7 million people—went without health insurance for some period of time. When those who do not have health insurance get sick, their first response is often to avoid or delay seeking care due to the cost.
When the uninsured do obtain care, they struggle to pay as much as they can afford. Often, however, the uninsured cannot afford to pay the entire bill, and a portion of it goes uncompensated. To make up for these uncompensated care costs, doctors and hospitals charge insurers more for the services provided to patients who do have health coverage. In turn, the costs that are shifted to insurers are passed on in the form of higher premiums to consumers and businesses that purchase health coverage.
People without health insurance received $116 billion worth of care from hospitals, doctors and other providers in 2008, according to the report. Those costs were covered as follows:
- The uninsured paid for, on average, more than one-third (37 percent) of the total costs of the care they received out of their own pockets.
- Third-party sources, such as government programs and charities, paid for another 26 percent of that care.
- The remaining amount, approximately $42.7 billion in 2008, was unpaid and constituted uncompensated care.
To make up for this uncompensated care, the costs were shifted to insurers in the form of higher charges for health services. These higher charges are then passed on to families and businesses in the form of higher premiums—$1,017 for families and $368 for single people, says Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.
As more people join the ranks of the uninsured, the hidden health tax is growing….That tax hits America’s businesses and insured families hard in the pocketbook, and they therefore have a clear financial stake in expanding health coverage as part of health reform.
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And as long as the insurance industry is involved with health care “reform” and labor endorses this “reform”, why write such a “negative” story about the industry?
over 500 unions say NO to insurance companies! Write about that!!!
We cannot live without our doctors, but we can live without insurance companies. Being in the life, health and P&C insurance business for over 20 years, I would estimate that 50% of premiums, and a substantial portion of human resource expenses, go to waste on other than healthcare, such as—wining, dining, lobbying, contests to attend resorts and unreasonable executive bonuses (the latter 2 going to the most effective liars, cheats and thieves). I support a public plan or single payor system of which most of the premiums paid would go towards healthcare. Even in property and casualty insurance, and similar with health insurance, I can give examples of where, system wide, as much as 150% of premiums acquired go into client acquisition expenses in the name of competition and efficiency (Not).
I have three health insurance companies engaging in lying, cheating and stealing, deceptive trade practices and fraud. One is using the excuse of the employer’s lack of paying the premium. The employer uses the excuse of election problems , which is due to their highly secure and complex online systems that do not work and take an act of congress to correct. The other insurance companies use the excuse that they sent a survey form inquiring about other coverage. Even when you finally get it and swear you do not have coverage, they misinterpret that you do have other converge. All of the parties use highly-secure corporate websites to communicate messages that are erased after a few weeks. However, they never fail to collect the premiums.
Between Banks, credit card companies and health insurance companies, insurance companies are tied for first in the example of lying, cheating and stealing, which is the order of the day for big business (Republicans). This is not godly, not even free enterprise, and will lead to the destruction of this country and the world. We are all consumers. This has to stop.