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【社会人文】提高的健康保险消费刺伤美国人
Rising health insurance costs hurting Americans
Posted on : Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:28:00 GMT | Author : Nigel Wright
News Category : Health
There is increasing dissatisfaction among Americans over health insurance costs. In a recent poll by a neutral organization 52 per cent of those polled, said they were dissatisfied with health costs, a huge jump from the 33 per cent who expressed they were dissatisfied last year.
This poll is an annual event called the Health Confidence Survey. The details of the survey show 30 % rating the health system poor, 28 % consider it fair and only 10 % rating it very good. One thousand adults participated in this survey.
Among those who were dissatisfied with health insurance blamed an increase in premium, deductibles and co-payments for the increased cost. About half of this group said they were saving less consequently. 36 per cent of this group says their retirement plans have also been affected and they were now opting for a 401 plans. 28 per cent of this group said that it had affected their core necessities like housing, heating and food.
This issue comes up at a time when gas costs less, lower unemployment rates and a stock market boom. So even if people have work they do not feel good about their situation because they have trouble meeting health costs. There is a never changing dependence on employer provided health insurance, even at a time when employer covered benefits have fallen to 77 per cent in 2005 compared to 81 per cent in 3001.
The average cost of an employer provided insurance cover per worker stands now at over $7,100. The high rate of rise of health-insurance per year has caused the employers to progressively increase the employee share in the benefits scheme by levying higher deductibles and co-payments. Upcoming jobs don't provide health cover while older companies are either cutting down or scrapping health cover entirely.
The Federal Government has come up with a new scheme in response to this situation. The scheme, called consumer-directed plans, includes low cost insurance for major medical expenses and a tax exempt “health savings account” for regular health care. The ramifications of this scheme are still to be studied in its entirety. At this point of time only 3 million people use this scheme. But it is gaining acceptance from some larger companies.
In spite of these rising numbers 47 million Americans are not covered by any health scheme and a large number of them die due to lack of medical care. American companies are also feeling the taste of the same medicine as the common mass. Unlike other countries they pay more on employee health benefits which can be crippling in the near future. To take an illustrative example General Motors spends more on employee health benefit than on steel for a single manufactured car.
The dismal state of American healthcare system is most evident in the fact that America spends twice as much on healthcare per year and gets higher mortality rates in return. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/9851.html
提高医疗保险费用伤害了美国人的感情
发布日期：2006-10-26 13:28:00 GMT
作者：Nigel Wright
新闻分类：健康
美国人对医疗保险费用的不满情绪正在逐渐增长。在最近的一项中立组织举行的民意测验中，这是一个被称为健康信心调查的每年举行一次的活动。共有1000个成人参加了这个民意测验。参加测验的人中，有52%的人对医疗保险费用表示不满，与去年的33%的人表示不满相比有明显增加。其中有30%的人批评医疗保险费用很糟糕，有28%的人觉得医疗保险费用相对公平，只有10%的人觉得医疗保险费用很合理。
那些不满的人主要指责医疗保险费用增长，和随之而来的附加税（deductibles？）和其他费用。在这其中，有一半的人说他们的积蓄减少，而36%的人说他们的退休计划因此而改变。他们现在更愿意选择401计划。28%的人说他们的根本生活——住房、取暖和食品——已经受到影响。
这种情况发生在石油价格下降，失业率下降和股市繁荣的时候。所以，即使人们都就业，他们仍因遭遇（上涨的）医疗保险费用而不持乐观态度。人们对雇主所提供的医疗保险从未发生改变。但是现在可以获得这种医疗保险的人已经从3001（？）年的81%下降至2005年的77%。
现在平均每位雇主为每个雇员所支付的医疗保险费用已经超过$7,100。医疗保险费用每年上升的比例已经迫使雇主因为要支付更多的附加税（deductibles？）和其他费用而在赢利计划中逐步增加员工费用的比例。尚未签约的工作合同已经不再提供医疗保险，而一些老公司正在削减医疗保险费用的比例。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-06-22 05:12
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