Depressing facts and figures on S.C.'s health insurance

Image by 20091002-health.jpg

I know, with a headline like that, how could you not be eager to click over?

Read more stories on this subject in our health insurance topic page.HealthReform.gov has been out there for some time but, still, it's a good spot to see just how broken things are in the current healthcare system.

An excerpt of the South Carolina page:

  • Roughly 2.5 million people in South Carolina get health insurance on the job1, where family premiums average $12,676, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.
  • Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 92 percent in South Carolina.
  • Household budgets are strained by high costs: 28 percent of middle-income South Carolina families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.
  • High costs block access to care: 15 percent of people in South Carolina report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.
  • South Carolina businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $600 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.

 

Hop over to the Web page to learn all about it.

The site is managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Filed in