Study: 5 ways you’re paying more for health insurance

When President Obama first entered the Oval Office, he touted the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise colloquially known as Obamacare. Since passing the legislation, his cohorts have argued that it would save Americans a lot of money in the end and help those who can’t attain health insurance. This hasn’t been the case.

Not only have there been issues rolling out Obamacare, the cost of healthcare continues to rise. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust report released Wednesday, employees are paying substantially more than they did a year ago.

Workers with solo coverage now pay more than $1,000 in annual premiums, which is up 8.1 percent from last year. Family coverage now costs workers close to $5,000 each year, which is also up 5.7 percent.

Overall, average annual premiums increased three percent to $16,834 for family coverage and remained at just over $6,000 for single coverage.

Although health spending has decreased over the past decade, healthcare costs today are substantially increasing. With premiums on the rise, here are four other ways you’re likely to spend more on your annual healthcare needs:

–          Deductibles: $1,947 per year, up from $1,034 in 2006.

–          Out-of-pocket doctor visits: average costs are between $30 and $40, compared to less than $20 a decade ago.

–          Specialist visits: an increasing number of workers are paying more than $45 for a visit to the specialist.

–          Drug tiers: the cost of generic drugs has remained flat, but the cost of preferred prescriptions has been gradually swelling.

Gabriel E. Vidal of the Mises Institute may have summed up Obamacare very well in 2009:

“Unfortunately, since Obama uses faulty logic to diagnose the problem, his solutions will only make matters worse faster. The correct framework within which to diagnose the problem is to admit that costs are out of control because they do not reflect prices created by the voluntary exchange between patients and providers, between customers and producers, like every well-functioning industry.

“Instead, health costs reflect the distortions that government regulators have introduced through reimbursement mechanisms created by command-and-control bureaucracies at federal and state levels.”