It is that time of year again. It’s open enrollment at my employer for health insurance options. I have the cheapest family coverage option – Keystone HMO. We go through all the red tape of primary care physicians, referrals, co-pays and deductibles. I consider myself lucky because my employer picks up about 80% of the total premium cost. They are the largest employer in Philadelphia, so they have major leverage in pricing negotiations with the health insurance companies. Despite this leverage, my premiums will be going up by 9.2% in the coming year. This is after a 12.1% increase last year. And this is just the premium side. Two years ago we had no individual or family deductibles. Now they are over $1,000. Therefore, my true annual cost is up by 20% per year.
Obamacare was passed in 2009. It immediately forced employers to cover kids up to the age of 26. Ever since my premiums have gone up by double digits every year, my co-pay went from $15 to $35, and they introduced deductibles. Obama sold Obamacare as reducing the average family insurance premiums by $2,500 per year. I guess I’m not from an average family.
Now the good part. The CPI is supposed to reflect the inflation rate of a dozens of living expenses. It weights Medical Care as only 7.7% of the total of your expenses. Hysterically, it weights Health Insurance as .753% of your total expenses. The ridiculousness of these weightings is astounding. A household with median income of $52,000 has medical care expenses accounting for at least 15% of their total expenses. Health insurance premiums alone are easily 8% or more. Even with my employer picking up 80% of the premiums, my portion is about 4% of my total expenses and my medical care expenses surpass 10% of my total expenses. The government is purposely under-weighting these expenses to falsify the inflation figures.
It gets even better. Your government keepers have the balls to tell you that health insurance costs actually FELL by 0.4% in the last 12 months, while medical care expenses only rose by 2.5%. The data from the beginning of 2010 (when Obamacare became law) to now is breathtaking in its falsity. According to the BLS here is the rate of inflation for these categories since January 2010:
Health Insurance – 12.6% (2.3% annual increase)
Medical Care – 15.9% (2.9% annual increase)
Do you think Humana, United Health, and Cigna are reaping massive profits with 2.3% annual premium increases? This data is an outright joke. My health insurance premiums are up by over 65% since 2010. My medical care expenses are up over 75% since 2010. I guess the government is comfortable with lying to the American people because they know they are apathetic, math challenged and distracted by their iGadgets.
What is your health insurance inflation?
