Health costs jump 3 times Md. salaries

Report says many workers not paid enough to buy insurance

By SHANTEE WOODARDS, Staff Writer

Published 10/24/08

Health insurance premiums for Maryland families increased three times more than their incomes from 2000 to 2007, according to a report released yesterday.

Families USA released state-by-state information that showed many consumers around the country are not being paid enough to pay for health insurance. Officials said the data painted a poor picture for each state and Washington, D.C.

Nevada, where premiums rose at a rate of 2.5 times that of earnings, fared the best. Michigan, with premiums increasing a 17 times the rate of family wages, did the worst. Maryland placed fourth, as the premiums were three times the amount of...

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It's great - 2008-10-24 14:53:57

that the newspapers are covering this subject, because the health care cost crisis will soon reach proportions similar to the Wall Street crisis. But the article takes the easy way out and points out the profit that insurers are turning. $180M sure does seem like a lot of money, but not so much when you consider that there are 3.2M enrollees. If Carefirst acted as a true non-profit and showed no profit (without artificially pushing their profits into their expenses), the savings would amount to about $60 per enrollee. While that is a start, it's not going to put much of a dent in the problem. Americans need to address some very touchy subjects if we really want to reduce costs. The vast majority of health dollars are spent in the last months of life. We need to decide how long people need to live. England and other socialized medicine countries pay less for health care because they stop paying for life extending procedures after 65, and rationing it to everyone else. I don't think Americans would tolerate that for very long. A Harvard article out recently said that 95% of bypasses surgeries were unnecessary. Addressing end of life issues and reforming the payment system for out-patient surgery would make a very significant difference in our system.

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Peter D. - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Terrible