LANSING, Mich. — Patients, seniors, families, and small businesses are struggling like never before to pay for skyrocketing, health insurance costs. Premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses continue to increase almost uncontrollably year after year while access to quality care, health plan options, and benefits seem to diminish at the same time.
Even as consumers pay more every month for coverage, they’re still hit with high co-pays, surprise bills, and denied claims. Meanwhile, a handful of large integrated insurance and health services corporations, who now control much of the health care market, have seen their revenues, profits, and market power increase at unprecedented levels.
Key indicators highlighting today’s pain points for patients and families over the last 10 years include:
· Average family premiums in employer-provided health plans have gone up an estimated 50% or more, and deductibles 43% or more,
· Average family gross premiums in Obamacare, or Affordable Care Act (ACA), health plans have gone up 80% or more, and deductibles 50-100% or more
In advance of hearings scheduled by Congress on January 22nd where CEOs from the largest health insurance corporations have been called to testify, former health insurance executive turned whistleblower and policy expert Wendell Potter is available to help consumers understand why healthcare costs are so expensive, how insurers profit from consolidation, and why Americans are paying more but getting less from their coverage.
For more information, please visit
CenterForHealthAndDemocracy.org
HealthcareUncovered.substack.com
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