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Health Care Deductibles Surge Past Wage Increases, Kaiser Study Shows

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Since 2010, deductibles have gone up 67 percent.

Having health insurance is a near necessity, but paying for it is getting increasingly hard for consumers.

That's because while premiums for health insurance have gone up modestly since 2010, deductibles have gone up 67 percent.  That's according to an annual survey of employer-sponsored insurance done in part by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"It's deductibles rising a little bit every year -- almost $100 bucks a year -- a little bit every year," said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation.  

Altman said there may be a slowdown in the rise of health costs but it's largely invisible to consumers. That's because they're being asked to pay a greater share of their health care spending through their rising deductibles -- the amount of money that the consumer pays at each hospital or doctor visit.

"So if wages were keeping up with the growth and cost-sharing, it wouldn't be as big a deal for people. But the pain level is significant. It really affects family budgets, because their wages aren't rising at the same time," he said. 

Credit Kaiser Family Foundation Survey

Altman said employers don't have many options when it comes to keeping premiums down -- but a common way to do it is to force deductibles up. 

Read more about the study at www.kff.org.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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