Surprise: Americans Are Paying More For Healthcare Premiums And Deductibles

ABC News seems unsure just why

It’s a total mystery, but, I bet it still has to be Trump’s fault

(ABC News) According to a new report by The Commonwealth Fund, rising premium and deductibles contributions have outstripped wage growth over the past decade. More and more middle-class Americans are paying a greater percentage of earnings for health care.

The report analyzed survey data from 40,000 private-sector employers, as well as income data from the Census Bureau.

Median household income in the United States between 2008 and 2018 grew 1.9% per year on average, rising from $53,000 to $64,202.

But middle-class employees’ premium and deductible contributions rose much faster — nearly 6% per year over that same decade.

In 2008, middle-class workers spent about 7.8% of household income on premiums and deductibles. By 2018, that figure had climbed to 11.5%.

Strange. The phrases “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” and “Obamacare” do not appear anywhere, nor are they even alluded to.

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23 Responses to “Surprise: Americans Are Paying More For Healthcare Premiums And Deductibles”

  1. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    It’s unfair to blame only trump. The GOP is also culpable.

    • Kye says:

      That’s cause it’s Trump and the GOP wrote the ACA and Husseincare?

      Once again, regardless how obvious the truth is or how hard it slaps you in the face you refuse to acknowledge it.

      Trump 2020. The coup continues.

  2. Hoss says:

    Democrats f*ck up everything they touch. Unfortunately, the middle-class ends up bearing the brunt of their emotionally driven ideology. The self-avowed socialist that works in our HR (benefits) department sheepishly admits it was Obamacare that screwed us all.

    So, next time a democrat feels compelled to throw in their two cents on health care, or anything having to do remotely with economics, just tell them to f*ck off and keep their mouth shut.

  3. Jess says:

    Obamacare worked as planned. The costs due to regulations have become so high, nobody can afford health insurance, and the push for Socialized medicine becomes easier.

  4. gitarcarver says:

    Prior to WWII, “health care” was virtually unheard of. There were no health care plans.

    After the war, there was a man power shortage so companies began to offer heath insurance as a benefit to entice workers.

    The plans was basically “a la carte” meaning that you could select whether you wanted your insurance to cover a young, single person or whether you wanted family coverage.

    When the ACA kicked in, it was the government who decided what you were paying for. Single male with no kids? Sorry, you have to pay for female reproductive care. Don’t drink or do drugs? Sorry, you have to pay for rehab and addiction counseling. Single female? Sorry, you have to pay for Viagra for older men.

    Someone will inevitably say “the Europeans like their health care,” and while that may be true, they aren’t paying for as much as we do. Furthermore, Americans want stuff – including health care – now. In many European countries, health care is “rationed” (for lack of a better term) and the wait times are longer than here.

    There are many factors that go into the price of “health care,” and the ACA seems to have managed to reduce none, and increase all.

  5. John says:

    Didn’t Trump promise us that healthcare costs would go down under TrumpCare?
    I thought Mexico was going to pay for that also

    • Kye says:

      “Didn’t Trump promise us that healthcare costs would go down under TrumpCare?”
      There was no “Trumpcare” never was so stop lying. Don’t you have enough to bitch about without making stuff up? Trump said he was going to try and undo Husseincare but with a House full of “Orange Man Bad” idiots that certainly can’t be accomplished, can it? Nobody said Mexico would pay for our healthcare but ALL the DemComs said WE would pay for ILLEGAL MEXICAN’s health care.

      You guys on the left need to stop blaming Trump for things that can’t be done because YOU party is blocking them. Like DREAMer’s. Or Husseincare, or the border wall, or college cost reform, etc, etc.

      You and Fredo and the rest of the useful idiots on the left believe anything your handlers tell you.

      https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-17-at-6.42.55-PM.png?resize=600%2C343&ssl=1

      Trump 2020 Troll the left for another 4 years.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        Gomer forgot that tRump promised cheaper and better healthcare for all Americans.

        Perhaps DJ was too busy bribing Ukraine and tweeting insults at patriots to think about the American people.

        • Doom and Gloom says:

          Obama promised you could keep your plan.
          Obama promised you could keep your doctor.
          Obama promised that health costs would go down.
          Obama was a liar and corrupt. He signed an EO that said the GI bill could not be used at the Phoenix University. The stock collapsed. His good friend swept in and bought up all those dirt cheap shares. Obama then changed his mind and the stock skyrocketed.

          Obama and Joe Biden are CrOOKS Liars and thieves.

        • formwiz says:

          Actually, prescription prices have come down and the prospect of IdiotCare no longer looms over our heads.

          And all sides have agreed there was no quid pro except from Quid Pro Joe.

          As for insults, he only does that to idiot Lefties, who care nothing about the American people.

    • formwiz says:

      AFAIK no such bill as TrumpCare has been passed by Congress and, if it did, I don’t recall Mexico being part of the equation.

      I do recall Zippy telling us, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”.

      He also said costs would go down.

  6. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    Every advanced nation on this Earth spends less per person on healthcare than does the US. On average HALF as much. And most are happier with their systems than Americans are with ours.

    Is the US system twice as good as France, Norway, Japan or Switzerland? No.

    The US system redistributes a trillion USD from the working classes to the donor class. Funny how that works.

    “On August 1st, HHS (Health and Human Services) announced a rule change that impacts short term health insurance, or what is sometimes being referred to as, “Trumpcare plans”

    On GOPher sabotage of the ACA, from TrumpCare.com:

    Insurers lost money in the beginning under the ACA, but increased enrollment each year was expected to make up for the initial cost to insurance providers. Aside from withholding cost-sharing funds, the administration also cut funding for ACA marketing and outreach by 90 percent. Surprisingly, the overall number of enrollees grew to 8.7 million even without this support. The large rate jump last year was meant to accommodate the cancellation of cost-sharing reimbursements for insurers, and participating insurers began to turn a profit.

    The right hates Americans.

    • Doom and Gloom says:

      Oh, stop pretending to be progressive. You don’t care about the poor. You spend all your time defending wars, Wall Street and the elitists of the Democratic party.

      Go peddle your faux outrage somewhere else Elwood. I mean it would be one thing if you were consistent but you don’t even know what a true progressive believes in.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        You clearly don’t understand healthcare costs. Do you think all the think-tanks, health orgs, insurance companies and governments are lying to you, and that only YOU know the truth? Are all those other nations sneaking money into healthcare without telling anyone?

        The top marginal rate for Americans was over 90% after WWII and we built modern America.

        Sweden has the highest tax rate in the world, the best healthcare system, low income/wealth inequality and spend half as much on care per person as we do.

        For some reason, right-wingers want investors, Wall Streeters, politicians, corporate executives, lawyers, drug companies, doctors, advertisers and marketers to extract a trillion a year out of healthcare. We know the reason – the GOPhers are bitches to America’s wealthy, and use right-wingers to keep them in power.

        • Doom and Gloom says:

          Don’t you find it funny Elwood that >>>>>I<<<<<<<< was saying just a month ago that IF the GOP doesn’t do something to fix healthcare they are going to get pounded in 2020.

          Don’t remember that do you? That’s because you are here with 1000 posts a week trolling and you can’t remember who, what, why, when and where.

          Don’t you remember that it is >>>>>>I<<<<<<< who has been ranting against being in wars in the Middle East, while you were using the instance to trash Trump for wanting to pull out of Syria.

          Don’t remember that do you because with a 1000 posts a day you can’t remember who you reply to and what you say.

          Don’t remember that it is little old me who is opposed to the Military-Industrial Complex and anti-war despite having served 24 years active duty?

          Don’t remember that do you because you spend day and night pounding on your keyboard pretending to be something your not.

          Pretending you actually care about healthcare, poor, middle class, endless wars and big corporations getting wealthy off your work. You pull your news from big corporations and then believe what they write. Everything about your posting oozes Establishment anti-progressive.

          You are not a progressive. So stop pretending to be one. See the problem with you posting 1000 posts a week on one website is that pretty soon a pattern emerges. The pattern for you is that you don’t care about the poor. You only use them to bludgeon the right as if the right somehow has singlehandedly put them in the poor house.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        Oh, stop pretending to care about Americans. You don’t care about the poor. You spend all your time defending the wealthy and GOP elitists.

        It’s telling that you think everyone must pick a “side” and only support what that “side” thinks. Hmmm.

        • david7134 says:

          Jeff,
          Sorry, but you don’t have a clue about medical economics, or for that matter any economics. Obamacare is nothing more than a worthless policy that does not cover essential service. You are in love with socialized medicine but have zero knowledge of what government medicine is.

          Now you will start a convoluted series of comments that are either lies or don’t make sense or are out right lies.

        • Doom and Gloom says:

          @Elwood Oh, stop pretending to care about Americans. You don’t care about the poor. You spend all your time defending the wealthy and Democrat elitists. You know the MSM corporations owned by billionaires because they TRASH Trump and the GOP.

          Your not a progressive. Stop pretending to be one.

    • formwiz says:

      No, every Socialist nation pays through the nose on taxes (income – 50%, sales -25%, gas – $3.00/gal) to fund a system of third rate care.

      Is the US system twice as good as France, Norway, Japan or Switzerland? No.

      Actually, it’s 10 times better because we get surgery when we need it.

      The US system redistributes a trillion USD from the working classes to the donor class. Funny how that works.

      Link?

      And Trumpcare.com has updated its posts on the proposed plan in 2 1/2 years, so how reliable is it?

  7. formwiz says:

    You do realize Jeffery, in resurrecting all his old whines about socialized medicine, has just tossed in the towel on impeachment.

    When Donald Trump told the world, if impeached, he would demand a Senate trial, he knew Cocaine Mitch would let him subpoena every Democrat he wanted and grill them mercilessly.

    The Demos know it, too. And this would be during the primaries and election campaigns.

    Win-win-win, no matter what happens.

    So Hypocrite Hare goes back to his usual nonsense.

  8. Kye says:

    I’d like to be the first to let you know Prince Andrew did not kill himself!

  9. Nighthawk says:

    I love how they obscure the details. OMG!!! Insurance costs are WAAAYYYY up since 2008!!

    Never mind that the greatest increases in these costs happened form 2008 to 2016. From 2016 to 2018 the total increase in contributions, deductibles+premiums, was about .2%. From 2008 to 2016 these costs increased by 3.5%.

    Hmmm, who was POTUS and what happened in that time frame??

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