People have begun to catch on to how much health insurance premiums have increased in the last few years and how much they will increase in 2026. The Kaiser Family Foundation annual health benefits survey has been released and I will cover the results in the next few posts. The survey covers employer-sponsored health plans, which cover the most Americans. The initial big picture item I want to post about is the cost of the average working family–$27,000 a year in 2025. Most workers pay a significant portion of that amount. What outrages me is that these younger working families are paying this amount while slackers on Medicaid get far better coverage and pay nothing. There are some poorer people who need help, but Medicaid has become a joke in terms of eligibility and allowing those who just don’t want to work to get free health care. To add insult to injury, these working families are paying the taxes for the slackers to get free Medicaid. (KFF Report)
And then we have the whiners, often older retirees who aren’t yet eligible for Medicare, regarding the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act subsidies for individual coverage purchased on the exchange. Prime examples cited by Sen. Klobuchar, a dreadful person with zero record of legislative accomplishment from my home state and on Twitter, are people living on a very high government pension or otherwise having wealth and complaining about their travel or other activities being restricted because they might actually have to pay for their own health care instead of sponging off taxpayers. And the lies that are told about what is actually happening with those subsidies are simply absurd. The portion an individual pays is changing, which is typically a very small part of the total cost. And it is changing most for those with the highest income. So stop whining and have a little sympathy for those working families who are getting slammed with the costs of health insurance and paying high taxes.
Over the years through various legislation and insurance coverage reforms have we developed a medical institution the country can no longer afford? In the early 1980’s when we had our first child we opted not to have maternity coverage. I was self employed as a dairy farmer at the time and made the financial decision not to have maternity coverage. 18 months of added premium costs equaled the hospital bill. The hospital bill was about $2700 dollars and the doctor was $800. The best I could calculate the $2700 dollars would be about $8,000 today. After the first child I purchased maturity coverage because the hospital charge rate and doctor charge rate rose that rapidly the math no longer worked. On another note I do not understand how the public tolerates the price practices of the health care industry, not sure how it is even legal. How can the charge rate for a procedure vary depending on what group you belong to.