Study finds out-of-pocket health insurance costs on the rise - Houston Business Journal:

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The study, authored by researchers from the and and fundedeby , examines trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found rising rates of underinsuranceand unaffordability, particularly for poore r and sicker people. In 2007, adultw with employer coverage faced an averagrof $729 annually in out-of-pocket costs for medicalo services, including deductibles and other formx of cost sharing such as copayments and coinsurance.
That represent a 34 percent increase from when theaverage out-of-pocket burden was Health plans covered a slightly smallefr percentage of overall expenses in 2007 than 2004, but growtg in overall health spending was the chief culpritf behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a period of economi c expansion, yet rising health care costs still erode the value of employer-sponsored said lead author Jon Gabel.
employees have been asked to shouldetr even more ofthe cost-sharinv burden during difficult economic times such as the Unitedx States is now Hence, it is imperative that health care reforj include constraints on health spending, or else healtjh insurance will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income and reform itself will be unsustainable.”