Health insurance rates are rising and will be continuing to rise for several reasons;
1) Healthcare costs are rising (physician services, prescription drugs, inpatient services)
2) An aging population - the Baby Boom generation, the largest demographic segment of our population, have now aged to the point where they are in the prime years of life (age 40+) that health problems begin to become common.
3) Increased consumption of health care services in general - across the board, the American population in general is consuming more and a broader array of health care services than past generations.
4) New treatments - from expensive new prescription drugs to new forms of technology like robotic surgery we have a wide range of advances in medical science that allow for the treatment of conditions that in the past there were little or no options available. Few of these new advances are cheap.
5) New Conditions - from Autisim, to Celiac Sprue Disease to a variety of other conditions, we can diagnose and treat a range of conditions that weren't even recognized as existing in previous decades.
6) Cost Shifting to Cover the Cost of Treating the Uninsured - the cost of providing care for the uninsured who cannot pay their own medical bills is shifted over to higher costs for people who are insured.
7) Cost Shifting to Cover Government Underpayment for Medicaid and Medicare - since the inception of these government programs in the 1960's they have never paid the market rate for health care services and in many situations they pay less than the cost of the services these populations consume. This cost difference has also been shifted over to the insured population.
8) Government Intervention in the Health Insurance System - with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the many changes it imposes on health insurance benefits and the financing of health insurance such as doing away with pre-existing condition limitations & exclusions, making policies guaranteed to be issued regardless of health condition, mandating a broad new range of services be covered by all health insurance policies (for example all policies must cover maternity and pediatric dental and vision services even if you are a 50 year old single male), providing subsidies for the purchase of heath insurance up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level and expanding Medicaid eligibility in many states are all factors that will contribute to increased demand for a finite resource. Regardless of one's political or philosophical views of these changes, basic economics teaches us that higher demand for something for which there is a limited supply leads to higher prices.
There are more factors that contribute to the ever increasing cost of health insurance but these are among the main driving forces behind the steady increase in health insurance rates people have been experiencing.
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1) Healthcare costs are rising (physician services, prescription drugs, inpatient services)
2) An aging population - the Baby Boom generation, the largest demographic segment of our population, have now aged to the point where they are in the prime years of life (age 40+) that health problems begin to become common.
3) Increased consumption of health care services in general - across the board, the American population in general is consuming more and a broader array of health care services than past generations.
4) New treatments - from expensive new prescription drugs to new forms of technology like robotic surgery we have a wide range of advances in medical science that allow for the treatment of conditions that in the past there were little or no options available. Few of these new advances are cheap.
5) New Conditions - from Autisim, to Celiac Sprue Disease to a variety of other conditions, we can diagnose and treat a range of conditions that weren't even recognized as existing in previous decades.
6) Cost Shifting to Cover the Cost of Treating the Uninsured - the cost of providing care for the uninsured who cannot pay their own medical bills is shifted over to higher costs for people who are insured.
7) Cost Shifting to Cover Government Underpayment for Medicaid and Medicare - since the inception of these government programs in the 1960's they have never paid the market rate for health care services and in many situations they pay less than the cost of the services these populations consume. This cost difference has also been shifted over to the insured population.
8) Government Intervention in the Health Insurance System - with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the many changes it imposes on health insurance benefits and the financing of health insurance such as doing away with pre-existing condition limitations & exclusions, making policies guaranteed to be issued regardless of health condition, mandating a broad new range of services be covered by all health insurance policies (for example all policies must cover maternity and pediatric dental and vision services even if you are a 50 year old single male), providing subsidies for the purchase of heath insurance up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level and expanding Medicaid eligibility in many states are all factors that will contribute to increased demand for a finite resource. Regardless of one's political or philosophical views of these changes, basic economics teaches us that higher demand for something for which there is a limited supply leads to higher prices.
There are more factors that contribute to the ever increasing cost of health insurance but these are among the main driving forces behind the steady increase in health insurance rates people have been experiencing.