Health Insurance Cutbacks Squeeze the Insured (NPR)

Health insurance just isn’t what it used to be. “Deductibles have gone up. Copays have gone up. You see cost-sharing for out-of-network services have gone up,” said Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Group. “It seems to have accelerated in the last few years. Health care is just continuing to take a bigger bite out of take-home pay.” More than 20% of Americans had a problems getting insurance to pay for a hospital, doctor or other health care in the last year, according to a poll by NPR. The economy is forcing employers to cut back on coverage to keep up with costs, Fronstin said. “They’re trying to keep those cost increases as close to inflation as possible. And they’re doing everything they can to get their workers so that they think twice about the health care that they are using.”