North Carolina Health Insurance Rates Up 97%
If you are a North Carolina resident and have received any recent health insurance quotes, you know rates are way up. They are up an astonishing 97% since 2000 according to an article on bizjournals.com by James Gallagher. Income in the state has only increased by a mere 18.4% during the same time period.
This information was obtained from a new study completed by Families USA released Tuesday. If this trend continues more and more families will drop their health insurance because they will be unable to afford the costs. The cost to obtain North Carolina health insurance for a family has gone from $6,649 to $13,083.
In regards to employer sponsored health plans, more of the cost has been shifted to the employees as prices have gone up. Employers covered about 73% of health insurance costs back in 2000, but by 2009 it’s down to approximately 67%. Part of this decline is due to small business dropping their coverage altogether because they could not afford the benefit.
Families USA supports health coverage for all and they conclude that the steep rate increase can be attributed to rising health-care spending, not enough competition in the industry, a lack of regulation from the government and cost shifting from those without insurance to those who are covered.
