Wages vs. health premiums (with graph)

[The Straight Story]

Wages vs. health premiums

If it seems like health insurance costs are eating up a bigger chunk of your paycheck than a decade ago, here’s one reason why.

The cost of family health insurance premiums grew much faster than most workers’ wages between 1999 and 2009, according to new data from the Economic Policy Institute.

The think tank compared the rise in premiums to the increase in wages for nonsupervisory and production workers, the bulk of the private sector work force.

They found that the health insurance premiums more than doubled over the 10-year period, while workers' earnings rose by about 38 percent. Overall inflation rose by nearly 30 percent during the period.



http://lifeinc.todayshow.com/_news/2010/12/17/5668838-good-graph-friday-wages-vs-health-premiums

[Creative]

1. Wow...what happened in 1999?

[The Straight Story]

2. Y2K :) (nt)

[SharonAnn]

3. That was just the starting point of this graph. They were going up somewhat before.

[Creative]

7. Google says this is why...

(1) Medicare and Medicaid pay less than market rates, which causes health care providers to shift costs to private insurers and self pay patients.

(2) Medicine is increasingly technology driven, which raises costs, sometimes unnecessarily.

(3) Third party payments from insurance and the the lack of up front pricing make medical consumers cost insensitive.

(4) Excessive malpractice suits/insurance fees, e.g. up to $142,000 for an OB/GYN in Nevada.

(5) Costs to treat illegal immigrants causes health care providers to shift costs to private insurers and self pay patients.

(6) People who basically don't take care of themselves.

[DJ13]

4. That graph runs counter to the statistic that wages have been flat compared to inflation

Not so sure about that part of the graph.

[RC]

5. The chart basically shows that.

Or do you mean inflation happened and wages didn't keep up?

[DJ13]

6. inflation happened and wages didn't keep up

^ That.

According to that chart wages grew 10% more than inflation since 1999.