Health Insurance: A Primer (Part Four of Many)

April is the time our insurance comes up for renewal so I have the handy dandy premium chart from Blue Cross before me. Here are the current numbers.

We have a $7,000 family deductible. No pre-existing conditions. No tobacco. No substance abuse coverage.

Current Yearly Cost= $ 15,060.49
$13,062.00 (Actual Premium) + $ 1,998.49 (FICA/Medicare)

We are pondering raising our deductible to $11,600. In that case, our cost for the year would be $11,767.52.

Here's what Congress did last week to the cost of our health insurance. In two years, the maximum family deductible allowed will be $4,000. We will be in the same pool as tobacco users and substance abusers. Minimally, (not accounting for the fact that the rates will go up since pre-existing conditions must not be denied) when the law goes into effect our premium (I'm looking at the Blue Cross chart) will be: $20,082.95 (taking into account that Congress still charges FICA on the premiums of the self-employed, but not those whose insurance is provided by their employer).

The legislation just passed last week will leave us no choices in terms of coverage and will increase our premium by $5,022.46 each year...until the actuarial tables kick in for all the pre-existing conditions that are added. Then, the sky's the limit.

Lesson 4. The action Congress took last week made health insurance MUCH LESS affordable to millions of Americans.