The Affordable Care Act was created to help bring health care costs down and allow more Americans to be able to afford health insurance. After being in effect for several years, the ACA has been showing cracks in its armor that are causing health insurance costs to rise. When we look at how much health insurance cost in 2017, we can get a good idea as to how much of a financial burden staying healthy is in the United States.
Comparing Real Numbers
It is always a good idea to discuss health insurance numbers that have had time to be verified when comparing numbers. In 2007, the average American had to pay $7,700.00 towards their own health care. In 2012, that number had risen to an average of $9,596.00 per American on all health care costs. These costs include insurance premiums, out-of-pocket costs for insurance and non-insurance costs.
The Rising Cost Of Health
Americans pay more that twice per capita for health care than any other developed nation in the world, but the costs do not stop there. It was estimated back in 2012 that the average health care cost per American per year in 2023 will be $14,944.00. But in 2017, it was revealed that the costs of premiums for family health insurance plans were an average of $18,764.00 per American family. Health care costs continue to rise and the financial burden placed on Americans continues to rise as well.
Insurance Premiums
A significant part of the financial burden for health care born by American adults comes from the premiums paid for health insurance. The premiums people pay depend on where they live as, despite a marketplace for health insurance run by the federal government, health insurance costs are still a state-run issue.
In 2018, an individual paying for only a single health insurance plan (no family) paid $5,112.00 per year in health insurance premiums alone. On the other side of the spectrum, an individual living in the state of Kansas in 2018 paid only $2,352.00 for the year in health insurance premiums.
These numbers do not take into account the mandatory deductible that must be paid before insurance coverage even begins. In 2017, the average annual deductible for a health insurance plan was $2,120.00 per plan.
It is difficult to get accurate health insurance numbers because each statistical source has their own way of keeping the data. But the one thing all of these sources can agree on is that health insurance premiums and deductibles are going up for all Americans. With most Americans have to pay thousands of dollars in deductibles before their coverage even starts, the costs of health insurance in America can be extremely high.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!