Blog for Youth

According to a survey, the cost of health insurance continues to climb for companies and workers. In 2011, annual family premiums this year grew at a pace triple that of 2010 and outpacing wage increases.

Family premiums in employer-sponsored health plans jumped 9 percent this year and single premiums rose 8 percent, compared with 2010’s 3 percent and 5 percent, according to Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual study.

From news.yahoo.com:

Health insurance, unlike other industrialized countries, is largely provided by employers. Although the latest Census found more Americans losing company-sponsored insurance, almost 170 million Americans were on employer-based plans in 2010.

Kaiser and the Health Research & Educational Trust surveyed 2,088 randomly selected public and private employers large and small earlier this year.

The survey found that, on average, employees are contributing 28 percent, or about $4,129, a year toward employer-sponsored family plans. That is 131 percent more than a decade ago.

Including employers’ contributions, the overall premium has increased 113 percent since 2001 to $15,073 a year.

“We’re probably on a more modest side … but even with a 5 percent increase in a premium (that our workers saw) this year, they didn’t get a 5 percent raise,” said Jeff Franck, a compensation and benefits manager at Altru Health System.

Losing a job may be one of the worst days in any one’s life but thousands of unemployed people will be considering June 1 as particularly bleak.

As of June 1, people who lose their jobs after June 1 aren’t eligible for any subsidy (subsidized 65% of COBRA premiums for laid-off workers for up to 15 months) that were previously granted under the economic stimulus bill signed into law in February 2009.

From USAtoday.com:

COBRA allows departing workers to continue their former employers’ group insurance, but ordinarily, workers have to pay the entire premium, plus an administrative cost.

A Treasury study released last month found that up to a third of eligible unemployed workers signed up for subsidized COBRA.

The easiest way to get health insurance is to find a job with group coverage, but in this economy, that’s a tall order. How to stay covered:

Maintain COBRA coverage for as long as possible. While the COBRA subsidy expires after 15 months, COBRA is available for 18 months. The difference, of course, is that your premiums will skyrocket. Families USA, an advocacy group, estimates that the average family pays $1,107 a month for unsubsidized COBRA premiums.

Still, if you can scrape together enough money to pay the premiums for a month or two, you’ll buy some time to explore other coverage options, says Phil Lebherz, executive director for the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, a non-profit supported by insurance companies.

Carrie McLean, consumer specialist for eHealthInsurance, said that a licensed insurance agent can still help the unemployed explore the possible options.