Affordability
Georgians for a Healthy Future advocates for increased health care affordability. In 2007, more than 1.1 million Georgians reported not seeing a doctor in the previous 12 months because of the cost, adversely impacting access to care. Health care costs have been outpacing overall inflation and wage growth, placing significant strain on family budgets, employers, and government.
The Cost of Health Insurance
Health insurance is essential, both because it provides access to health care services and because it provides financial protection. Due to high underlying health care cost growth, however, the cost of health insurance is also growing rapidly. In 2006, the full cost of an employer sponsored family health insurance policy in Georgia was $10,793, which represented 22.31 percent of median family income in Georgia.(1) Because most employers who offer health insurance contribute toward the cost of the premium, the average employee premium was $2,909, which represents 6 percent of median income.(2) Many employers, in an attempt to hold down premium increases, have been turning towards health insurance arrangements that feature higher cost sharing through deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. These policies are growing increasingly common in the non-group market as well. However, they also present an increased financial burden on consumers at the point of service, which can present a barrier to accessing needed care and can result in the accumulation of medical debt.
Out-of-Pocket Costs
Nationally, between 2001 and 2004, inflation-adjusted out-of-pocket health care expenses increased by 16 percent, while inflation-adjusted wages were relatively flat. As a result, the percentage of the non-elderly population with a high financial burden (as defined by spending more than 10 percent of family income on health care) increased from 15.9 to 17.7 percent.(3) According to a separate study by the Commonwealth Fund utilizing a representative sample of 60 communities across the country, communities in which local residents face high medical cost burdens are more likely to be in rural areas and in the South. In Augusta, GA, for example, 39.7 percent of the population had a high medical cost burden in 2003, and in Atlanta, GA, 33.3 percent faced such a burden.(4)
The Cost of Being Uninsured
While the insured population faces high insurance premiums and the growing burden of increasing out-of-pocket costs, the uninsured also confront a high financial burden. Despite the common myth that the uninsured receive the care they need for free, the uninsured are actually much less likely to receive needed care than the insured and are often charged the sticker price for the health care services they receive rather than the rates that are negotiated between providers and insurers for the insured population, resulting in serious financial challenges.(5)
