Health Insurance Facts & Figures

Health insurance in the United States has become a major problem. Millions of Americans are uninsured due to high health-care costs and employers increasingly cutting employee health plans due to soaring premiums. Having health insurance increases the likelihood of early detection of major conditions such as cancer and diabetes and continued good health by seeing physicians for preventive care. These benefits and more are unlikely to be utilized if costs must be paid without health insurance.

The Facts

• The United States paid more than $2.4 trillion in health-care expenses in 2008. This is more than three times the cost in 1990 ($714 billion) and over eight times the amount spent in 1980 ($253 billion). In 2007, most of the $2.2 trillion in health-care spending went to hospital care (31 percent) followed by physician and clinical care (21 percent). Some other factors that are driving up the costs of health care are prescription drugs and technology, chronic illnesses, longer life expectancy and surging administrative costs.

Costs

• Government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid were responsible for over 46 percent of the health-care spending in 2007, followed by private insurance plans (42 percent) and out-of-pocket payments (12 percent). The average health-care cost per person in the United States averaged over $7,400 a year. That accounts for 16.2 percent of our country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), higher than any other industrialized country. Uncompensated care has also been a factor when it comes to rising health-care costs. Hospitals, for example, provided $34 billion in unpaid care in 2007.

Uninsured Facts

• More than 43 million Americans were uninsured in 2008, down from 46 million in 2007. The number of people who are insured rose from 253 million in 2007 from 250 million in 2006. However, there were 90 million people who didn't carry coverage for a part of 2006 and 2007. This decade alone has seen more than 8 million American lose their health coverage. It is estimated that one-third of the uninsured have a health problem or can't pay the $26 billion in medical expenses created by them in 2007. More than eight 8 million children (11 percent) in the United States are without health coverage.

Significance

• These dismal numbers on uninsured Americans can be blamed mostly on rising premiums. Americans are paying $1,600 more for family premiums annually than they did in 1999. The premium amount for a family of four paid by an employer in 2007 was $12,7000, which is more than the minimal wage earner made the entire year ($10,712). This has forced employers to stop sponsoring health plans or never engaging in providing plans. Nearly eight in 10 uninsured people come from working families. Over 70 percent come from families that have one or more full-time workers and 11 percent come from from families with part-time workers.

Warning

• These facts on America's health insurance are going to get worse. Economists predict that heath-care costs will top $3 trillion in 2012 and go over $4 trillion in 2016. Many people who don't have health insurance are facing a decision about whether to pay high premiums or dropping insurance taking a risk on their health. When people put off medical visits, small problems can become large problems; 30 to 50 percent of uninsured people are more likely to be hospitalized by an avoidable condition and the average cost of the hospital stay stemming from those preventable situations is around $3,300.