Last night, John McCain said:
The average cost of a health care insurance plan in America today is $5,800. I'm going to give them $5,000 to take with them wherever they want to go, and this will give them affordability.The Kaiser Family Foundation says the cost of a family health insurance plan today is $12,680.
So who's right?
Well, 158 million people get their health insurance through work. So 158 million people are used to - and have come to expect - the standard benefits that come through employer-based insurance. That benefits package runs $12,680/year.
15 million people buy health insurance on their own. And according to AHIP, the health insurance industry front group, the average cost of a family plan in 2006-2007 was $5799. But what do you get with that $5799 plan?
When you buy bargain health insurance, you buy defective insurance that's not going to meet your needs.
Someone should inform Senator McCain that last time employer-based family premiums cost close to $5800 was back in 1999:
Premiums rose a modest 5 percent this year, but they have more than doubled since 1999 when total family premiums stood at $5,791
UPDATE: Don't just take my explanation for it. Here's more.
1 comment:
Tom and I just did the math and figured out that we are paying about $18,000 for health care right now. He and his company split the $10,000 cost for the actual insurance. Then between our co-pays, deductibles, and medicines, we pay around $8,000. I'd love to find out where McCain's advisors came up with the $5,000 number? Is that what the lowest quality of health insurance costs right now? Is it just an arbitrary "sounds like a nice political sound bite" figure? I'm just baffled.
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