Xequecal wrote:
Ladas wrote:
For a family of 4 with a single source of income using a typical employer provided health care plan can easily pay over $16,500 annually.
The median four-person family income in the US is about $70,000. This would mean that the average US family spends almost a third of their post-tax income on health care.
Depends on what definitions you use. I was including the portion of the premium that is paid by the employer as costs to the family, since that is income lost. What you are neglecting though is the cost of the co-pays and deductibles over the course of that year that are not part of the premium.
However, as shown in
this study in 2008, the average annual premium for a family of 4 was $12,298, ranging from $13,500 in Massachusetts (irony), New Hampshire, Indian and Minnesota to $11,000 in Idaho.
While I don't have any information from my quick search with more current values, from the study, premiums increased 33% from 2003 to 2008. The five-year increase in family premiums ranged from about 25 percent in the three lowest-growth states (Michigan, Texas, and Ohio) to 45 percent in the two highest-growth states (Indiana and North Carolina). Twelve states saw increases of 40 percent or more and 36 states saw increases of 30 percent or more—well above the rate of income growth. They also predicted that the annual premium for family coverage would be over $17,000 by 2015.
You can extrapolate from there for 2010/2011.