State insurance premiums rise, income not matching
2nd May, 2008
The average cost of Oklahoma families' insurance premiums jumped 50 percent from 2001 to 2005, while those families' median income rose just 5 percent over the same period.
Oklahoma registered the largest increase in health insurance costs among the 50 states during the four-year period, according to the report issued Tuesday by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation in conjunction with "Cover the Uninsured Week.”
"If it's a race to the bottom, we're winning, I'm afraid,” state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said.
Holland said the figures are an outgrowth of Oklahoma's longstanding high number of residents who have no medical insurance and the state's relatively low median income.
About 21 percent of Oklahomans have no health insurance. In 2005, Oklahoma's median income was more than 7 percent below the national level.
Struggling to make ends meet
Many Oklahomans work for small businesses that are shifting more health insurance costs to employees, whose paychecks are not keeping up with inflation, Holland said. "We're just seeing a downward spiral of costs going up, which is causing more people or business to drop coverage,” she said.
re struggling to make ends meet. "The most sobering aspect of this is to compare the substantial growth in health insurance costs and other needs to relatively flat wage growth,” Blatt said. "This is why an increasing number of Oklahomans are feeling pinched.”
Oklahoma, Holland said, must find ways to make health insurance available to more residents.
"We have to create a mechanism by which people can get coverage and pay for their medical expenses,” Holland said. "Get them coverage so they get adequate preventative and chronic care and treatment. That will prevent people from ending up in emergency rooms in very serious conditions.”
Oklahomans spend about $18 billion annually on medical care, Holland said. "That seems like a lot of money to me. I have to believe we can distribute that more effectively.” Insurance industry officials, lawmakers, regulators, consumer advocates and residents must work together to find ways to improve the state's health insurance situation, Holland said.
Blatt said many Oklahomans have experienced little benefit of the state's recent economic strength driven by soaring energy prices.
While Oklahoma thus far has been able to avoid the national economic slowdown due to local strength in energy and housing, some residents will be especially hard hit if those doldrums spread here, Blatt said.
"There is a significant segment of population that really is already struggling to get by week-to-week, month-to-month, and it is going to be particularly difficult if the downturn hits Oklahoma considering the budget situation where we're already seeing revenues decline and falling funding,” he said. "How are we going to take care of those most in need of assistance if we do see the downturn here?”
Source : http://www.newsok.com/
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