A national health care advocacy group released a study today showing insurance costs continue to rise for more and more Iowans. Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families U.S.A., says they projected the insurance costs increases for 2008 to get discussion going in an election year.
Pollock says they project that 27.5% of the non-elderly will be spending more than 10% of their pre-tax family income on health care. He says this is a huge increase compared to the year 2000. Pollock says that translates to 701,000 people who will that amount for health insurance.
Pollock says that’s an increase of 262,000 people from the year 2000, which he says is greater than the population of Des Moines and West Des Moines, so "this is rather significant." Pollock says much focus is given to those who’re uninsured, but the problem also impacts those who have insurance.
Pollock says "what is so astounding" about the numbers is that 91% of the people have health insurance. Pollock says their report also finds that 197,000 Iowans will spend more than 25% of their pre-tax income on health insurance. He says in 2000, there were 114,000 Iowans who spent more than 25% of their pre-tax income on health insurance.
Pollock says it’s an increase of approximately 83,000 people, which nearly equal to the population of Sioux City. Pollock says health care is consuming an ever-growing share of family budgets-forcing people to make difficult sacrifices in other areas so they can make ends meet. You can see the whole report on the Families U.S.A. website .