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The cost of health insurance in the United States is a major factor in access to health coverage. The rising cost of health insurance leads more consumers to go without coverage and increase in insurance costs and accompanying rise in the cost of health care expenses has led health insurers to provide more policies with higher deductibles and other limitations that require the consumer to pay a greater share of the cost themselves. Many people with pre-existing conditions such as cancer and depression are turned down for coverage, denied coverage of those conditions or are charged higher prices for coverage. == Background == The US is the “only industrialized nation that relies heavily on a for-profit medical insurance industry to provide basic health care," as Senator Dianne Feinstein has said, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Politifact watchdog group has confirmed.〔Politifact, http://www.politifact.com/personalities/dianne-feinstein/〕 The Kaiser Family Foundation claims that health insurance costs are driven not only by the added cost of health insurers making their profits, but also by rising health costs and administrative costs.〔Kaiser Family Foundation, US health care costs, March 2010, http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?imID=1&parentID=61&id=358〕 In 2004, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums grew 11.2% to $9,950 for family coverage, and $3,695 for a single person, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Education Trust. The survey also found that 61% of workers were receiving employer sponsored health insurance. 〔KFF, Survey shows private health insurance premiums rose 11.2 percent in 2004, http://www.kff.org/insurance/chcm090904nr.cfm〕 Five years later, Kaiser’s 2009 survey found that employer health insurance premiums were $13,375 for a family and $4,824 for a single person. About 60% of workers were receiving employer sponsored health insurance. Less than half (46%) of employees at small firms with 3 to 9 workers received coverage. As of 2008, the percentage of Americans receiving employer sponsored health insurance had declined for the eighth consecutive year, says the Kaiser Family Foundation.〔CBS News, Census ranks of poor uninsured grows, Sept 10 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/10/national/main5300466.shtml〕 From 1999 to 2009, Kaiser found that the insurance premiums had climbed 131% or 13.1% per year, and workers’ contribution toward paying that premium jumped 128% or 12.8% per year. In 1999, workers’ average contribution to the premium was $1,543, and in 2009 it was $3,515. For employers, their contribution was $4,247 in 1999 and $9,860 in 2009. 〔KFF, Employer health benefits, 2009 summary of findings, http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2009/7937.pdf〕 The lower a family's income is, the less likely that they can purchase health insurance, according to 2008 US Census figures. About 14.5% of households with $50,000 to $75,000 in income did not have health insurance. While 24.5% of households with $25,000 or less income went without health insurance.〔Health insurance coverage in 2008, http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf〕 A March 2010 study by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington DC think tank, found that out-of-pocket costs for health insurance premiums and services were rising faster than family incomes. Published in the journal Health Affairs, the study found ''“…After accounting for general inflation, family incomes remained stagnant between 2004 and 2006, while out-of-pocket spending on premiums and health care services increased 8.5% over the two-year period. Overall, total out-of-pocket spending increased, on average, about 5 percent annually between 2001 and 2006, and was similar for the 2001–4 and 2004–6 periods.”''〔Health Affairs, The Growing Financial Burden of Health Care, March 25 2010, http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.2009.0493v1〕 The report found the largest increases in out-of-pocket expenses were for those with private health insurance, including middle- and higher-income families. The study was based on 2001 through to 2006 data.〔Reuters, Health Care Costs Burden More Americans. March 25 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62O1DJ20100325〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Health insurance costs in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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