The Quiet Crisis: The Rising Costs of Health Care

If Ben Franklin was alive today, he might write that "nothing is certain but death, taxes and rising health costs." Whether we have good health benefits or not, it seems that insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-payments always seem to rise faster than our paychecks. When experts and politicians talk about the health care system, they often make the issues so complicated its hard to understand what they really mean. Sometimes, it just seems like they are talking about someone else's problems. For most of us, the real issues are about keeping our families healthy and making sure we can get the care we need when we need it.

We know it is important to take care of ourselves. Americans think all the time about eating right and getting enough exercise. Parents bring their children to the doctor for checkups and shots and we try hard to get preventive care and avoid health risks. But as health care costs have soared, more Americans than ever feel less certain they can afford the care they need if something really went wrong.

Known as the "quiet crisis," the number of people with health insurance who might be bankrupted by a medical crisis is growing. We have heard a lot about the 47 million without any health insurance, but we've heard less about the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who are underinsured. More than half of underinsured adults go without needed medical care. Even while scrimping on care, more than half of America's underinsured have debt due to medical expenses.

Too many Americans are locked into jobs or stopped from opening their own businesses because of worries about affording or maintaining health insurance. The threat of rising health insurance premiums and the prospect of losing coverage altogether has become a constant concern for far too many American families. In fact, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) are concerned about health or medical costs going up. And 8 in 10 adults say they are dissatisfied with the "total cost of health care in this country."

Do you know how it feels to be mired in health insurance expenses with no relief in sight? Kevin D. of Fountain Hills, Arizona lives this situation every day:

My wife and I are trapped by the insurance industry rules. We left the corporate world and have been self-employed for many years. We managed to get private health insurance and with premiums of $250 per month for a $1500 deductible, we were covered for major expenses. Each of us ended up needing some surgery over the years. Our premiums have grown rapidly. As rates rose, we increased our deductible to keep costs down. We are now paying $1100 per month for a $10,000 deductible policy! We recently applied for coverage by three alternate carriers in hopes of getting some relief. To our disbelief, no carrier will accept us. We are at the mercy of the plan we have and whatever rates that carrier wants to charge. We have no alternative except to go uninsured, if our income falls to where we can't afford our premiums.

Despite being in good health and taking no medications, Jim D. of Indianapolis, Indiana, and his 54 year-old wife had to move to a smaller home because their medical costs keep rising. Jim is not alone in his need to make sacrifices just to pay for health care. To cover health care costs, 53% of adult Americans have had to decrease contributions to other savings, 37% have difficulty paying for other bills, 36% have decreased contributions to retirement plans, 33% have used up all or most of their savings, and 18% have difficulty paying for basic necessities like food, heat and housing.

The effects of these high costs are seen in the business world, as well. Many employers are requiring employees to pay more for their health insurance or to shoulder a larger portion of the actual cost of care. This rising cost of health insurance and shifting of costs from the employer to the individual worker results in health care costs that are out of reach for many people and leave even more having to reallocate money from other basic needs in order to pay for the increased cost of health insurance and health care.

Pamela L. of Tenino, WA, and her husband are both in their late fifties, self-employed and self-insured. Despite scaling back their coverage, their premiums have continued to escalate. They now have a barely affordable, catastrophic-only policy. Pamela is concerned about the cost increase coming in 2008:

Basically, we are one serious illness away from financial ruin. We could easily spend all of the small retirement savings we have trying to get through such an illness or accident. And then what? At our age, this is becoming very scary and we feel like we have absolutely no safety net.

The same palpable tension is shared in a note from Mary A. from Hendersonville, TN. Mary is diabetic and has high cholesterol and high blood pressure, and she has no choice but to stick with her current insurance. Mary writes:

I'm depleting my savings at a rate so staggering I can hardly breathe. I can't believe I'm nearing age 62 and wishing the next 3 years of my life away so that I can get Medicare at 65. And so I wait, wait that a terrible illness may cause me to lose my home (that thankfully is paid for), wait for my savings to run out, wait to die before the money runs out or wait to turn 65 so that I can breathe again.

Americans have a right to quality, affordable health care. Today, too many Americans don't get the health care they need, while paying exorbitant costs for insurance that covers too little. When the benefit of health insurance locks Americans into jobs or forces them to drastically alter their lives in order to afford the most basic of care, something needs to change. We can achieve that change if we work together. Divided We Fail.

Share your thoughts

We'd like to hear from you. What are your concerns about the rising cost of health insurance and the shifting of these costs to individual Americans?