Tuesday, September 15, 2009

WaPo: Kaiser Permanente's prices up 131 percent over the last ten years...

From Erza Klein:

The Kaiser Family Foundation's latest Employer Benefits Survey is out, and they've got some numbers worth remembering.

The average cost of a family health insurance policy in 2009 was $13,375.

Over the past ten years, premiums have increased by 131 percent, while wages have grown 38 percent and inflation has grown 28 percent.

If health-care costs grow as fast as they have over the past five years, the average premium for a family policy in 2019 will be $24,180. If they grow as fast as they have over the past 10 years, premiums in 2019 will average $30,803.

No one quite knows when, or how, the system will crumble. But make no mistake. At this rate of increase, it will, eventually, crumble. Want more numbers? They're here.

I'm currently a Kaiser Member here in California, having the premiums paid for by my company. When I first got dropped off of my Dad's Cobra waaaay back in the early-mid nineties, I joined because it was the cheapest...at $140 dollars a month, which I though at the time was insane.

Last year, I went checking it again, and it was $260 dollars a month.

Yeah, like the President said...this is unsustainable.