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Facts About Health Insurance Costs

Approximately 47 million people in the United States have no health care at all and 8.7 million of them are children, according to America's Union Movement. One-third of people that do have health insurance are worried about losing their health insurance and even union workers are in danger of losing their health care because of skyrocketing costs. Health care costs are a major problem in the United States.

  1. National Spending

    • The United States spends an average of $1,551,255 million each year on health care, according to Statehealthfacts.org. Wyoming is the state that spends the least on health care and California is the state that spends the most. From 1991 to 2004, total health care costs in the United States increased by approximately 6.7 percent each year. In 2005, health care costs increased by 6.9 percent, which was twice the rate of inflation, according to Tec Sec.

    Individual Costs

    • Spending one day in a hospital costs an average of $1,782 in the United States, according to America's Union Movement. In South Dakota this figure is $929 and in Oregon it's $2,512. In 2006, employer health insurance premiums increased by 7.7 percent and the average annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four was $11,500, according to Tec Sec.

    Outlook

    • Total health care costs are expected to reach $4 trillion in 2015, which will be 20 percent of the GDP, according to Tec Sec.

    Quick Facts

    • While Americans are struggling, health insurance CEOs earned an average of $8.7 million in 2006 and pharmaceutical company CEOs earned an average of $4.4 million, according to America's Union Movement. Each year more than 3.6 trillion prescription drugs are filled.

    Considerations

    • The United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations that provide free health care for their citizens, but the U.S. still has 47 million uninsured citizens, according to Tec Sec. Health insurance expenses are the fastest-growing cost for employers and national surveys show that the main reason people are uninsured is because of skyrocketing health care costs.

    Significance

    • The amount of money that the United States spends on health care is 4.3 times as much as it spends on national defense, according to Tec Sec. One out of four Americans say they have a problem paying for medical expenses, and 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings are partially caused by high medical expenses. Every 30 seconds someone files bankruptcy immediately after they've had a serious health problem that's been extremely expensive to treat.

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