Health care costs outpace earnings

Health insurance costs have far outpaced employee wages in recent years, placing severe economic stresses on families throughout the state.

A report released Thursday by Families USA, a national health care consumer group, revealed that insurance premiums rose more than six times faster than earnings between 2000 and 2007.

Ron Pollack, Families USA executive director, said during a teleconference with reporters that families list affordable health care among their biggest concerns.

He and others offered no solutions to the problem.

Among the factors driving higher premiums, he said, are pricier drugs, more sophisticated health care technology and higher overall medical costs.

"What should be done about this?" he asked. "The key point is that this is a difficult issue that really requires national leadership."

Pollack cited statistics that reveal the gravity of the problem.

He noted that the average family in the state paid $6,721 in premiums in 2000, compared to $12,513 seven years later.

At the same time, median yearly earnings rose from $24,834 to $28,155.

Unfortunately, the higher premium costs translated to even less medical coverage, Pollack said.

To make matters worse, employees in 2007 were bearing a larger share of premium costs than their employers paid in 2000.

"A bad situation is clearly growing worse," he said. "If it continues, more Pennsylvania residents will become uninsured."

The insured, he noted, already bear the burden of helping pay the medical bills of the uninsured through surcharge costs.

Jessica Seabury Larochelle, executive director of the Consumer Health Coalition, called on the state Legislature to help with the crisis.

She said several bills are pending in the House and Senate that could help address health care costs.

"If we continue to be trapped in a political gridlock, it's Pennsylvania residents and small businesses who will truly lose," she said.

Laurie Barnett Levine, executive director of Mental Health America of Westmoreland County, said some of her agency's workers are going without health insurance.

The mental health industry, she noted, faces perhaps even greater problems as many patient needs are not covered by insurance.

"Many people we serve don't have health insurance," she said.