While Idaho politicians rail, health insurance costs sail Idaho Mountain Express and Guide
While Idaho politicians rail, health insurance costs sail
While Idaho conservatives ramp up the invective and state lawyers prepare to join in a lawsuit to stop the health care reform act just passed by Congress, businesses and families are facing health insurance costs that are spiraling out of control.
Despite the deepest financial mess since the Great Depression and despite the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the annual increase in the cost of medical care at 3.7 percent, businesses and individuals are facing health insurance rate increases that range from 10 percent to 20 percent this year alone. Worse, insurance companies say there is no end in sight.
State insurance regulators—the ones with whom increases must pass muster--seem not to have noticed that businesses in Idaho and nationwide have been hemorrhaging red ink by the gallon.
It apparently hasn't registered with regulators or insurance companies that the companies and individuals paying premiums are still enduring layoffs and job and wage cuts. It hasn't registered that most corporate profits haven't returned to healthy levels.