Health insurance premiums for individuals who buy coverage by themselves are soaring, as outlined by a study released Monday. When lawmakers debated the health care reform bill, health insurance companies were trying with many effort to make as much money as they could before the law's provisions kick in. Individuals facing sharp increases in their insurance premiums are trying to save money by settling for fewer benefits and higher deductibles. Meanwhile, steadily rising insurance premiums and a drop within the number of employers offering health coverage swelled the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 3 million people in 2009.

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Health insurance and cost trends

Premium hikes for health insurance for individuals far exceed increases in the premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, as reported by a new survey on health insurance cost trends from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The Associated Press reports the non-profit foundation said premium hikes for individual coverage averaged 20 percent. Customers who were able to switch to cheaper plans brought the average increase in what individuals are paying for health insurance down to somewhere around 13 percent. This year's individual health insurance premium spike tops last year's 5 percent average increase for employer-sponsored family coverage. Health insurance cost trends for employer-sponsored single coverage held to be really steady.

Individuals with health insurance is getting expensive

The increasing cost of health insurance for people made news earlier this year when Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise its rates by as much as 39 percent in California. The New York Times reports the Kaiser study sheds light on how widespread these premium hikes are. It was reported by the New York Times reports that when the proposed Anthem hikes were met with outrage from federal and state officials, there was little details about how widespread such increases were in other parts of the country. Drew Altman, the Kaiser foundation's president and chief executive, told the Times that “The survey shows the steep increases we are reading about over the last several months aren't just extreme cases.”

Medical care reform a long wait

The Kaiser survey highlights the challenges that about 14 million people who are younger than 65 and purchase their coverage within the individual market will face until changes under the health care reform law kick in 2014. By then, all Americans could be required to have health insurance or risk paying a fine. In the meantime, 52 percent of respondents in the Kaiser survey who purchase individual health coverage said they would keep their current plan next year, when 32 percent said they were not sure. 14 percent said that they would probably switch companies to cut costs.

High deductibles on health insurance plans

Individuals are switching plans to higher deductibles to save money. $ 2,500 is the average deductible. One in four individuals said their plan had an annual deductible of $ 5,000 or more. The number of those with high deductibles rose from 39 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2009.

Millions sacrificing health insurance coverage

For the 2.9 million U.S. adults who joined those uninsured in 2009, health care reform does little to help them with their current needs. USA Today reports that in 2009 — the latest statistics available — 46.3 million American adults had no health insurance coverage, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in five working adults don’t have insurance. The percentage of uninsured adults climbed from 19.7 percent to 21.1 percent in 2009, and 58.5 percent of American adults went without insurance for at least part of the year.

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Associated Press
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5je_4AEzpzQnfbTmeeOg1yUO9jWRgD9GFOU080

New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22kaiser.html?src=busln

USA Today
usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-20-uninsured-reform_N.htm